Brix Brax
by practicalamanda
Summary: Blaine has been going to camp Fire Light since he could walk. It's his home away from home, but no one there knows he's gay. He didn't keep it a secret, but no one had asked and so no one knew. At camp he didn't have to be the gay kid. He was just a kid. Now that he's staff, will a new Waterfront director topple this carefully crafted logic? Klaine camp counselor AU
1. Chapter 1

**There was a last minute staffing change where I work which meant I was the only other person trained to take some of the girls out on a three week long canoeing excursion. I have been in the wilderness that long and have only just returned. That's the reason I haven't written/updated any fic in that long and also why I've been MIA from tumblr. I had an amazing time, but I'm excited to get back to writing (and sleeping in a bed)! **

**I'm going to leave the Knight's Tale AU for now because of personal reasons that I won't bore you with, but I'm going to set out on this adventure instead. I'd love it if you all would join me!**

The first time Blaine stepped foot at Camp Firelight was when he was four years old. The youngest campers at the sleep away camp were eight, but his Dad was the unit director for intermediate camp and that meant he was able to attend the camp's day care program, Pooh Corner. Blaine had gone back every year, spending his summers canoeing, camping, playing every sport one can imagine, and making the best friends he could ever ask for. More than the boarding school where he spent all of high school, more than his dorm room at NYU, and definitely more than his family's stuffy Victorian in Westerville, Ohio, Blaine felt that the platform tents at camp were his home, even if he only got to live there for two months out of the year.

Things had grown and changed over the years since Blaine was in Pooh Corner. For one, his Dad had been promoted. He was now the program director and perhaps more importantly, Blaine was now a staff member himself. With his days as a camper, counselor in training, and assistant counselor behind him, he could finally become full time staff, teaching canoeing and taking care of a cabin of boys of his own. Blaine took the first couple summer of college off from camp, thinking it was important to stockpile internships for his future career, but when he settled on elementary education for his major, he figured it was time for him to go back to camp. During his AC year he found that he had a knack for handling the very young kids, especially when they were homesick or scared and he was looking forward to a group of eight year olds to look after on his own.

Fire Light was an all boys camp and for Blaine, that was one of the best parts about it. For two months during the summer Blaine didn't have to think about holding in gas, or leaving the toilet seat up, or just generally being a gentleman. And the lack of females meant that Blaine was spared the long winded discussions his friends often had, waxing poetic about a girl they were trying to woo. The simple fact was that Blaine was gay, but he didn't want it to have to define him. At camp, it could be a non-issue. He didn't exactly keep it a secret, but no one had asked and so no one knew. At camp he didn't have to be the gay kid. He was just a kid.

"Did you remember to pack the mosquito net?" Blaine's father asked from his place at the drivers seat. Though their relationship had its ups and downs over the years, Blaine found that camp was one of the few things that he and his father could connect about. "They're supposed to be really bad through the beginning of July."

"Yeah they're in the duffle with all of my shoes," Blaine said, fiddling with the radio as they transitioned from New Hampshire stations to Maine.

"Just about there," his Father said, grinning and nodding his head towards the sign for their exit. "we'll be there in about twenty minutes."

Blaine banged his hands on the dashboard in excitement and shouted out the window, "Ra for Camp Fire Light!" he screamed at the cars passing by. "Ahh! I just can't wait to see everyone again," Blaine exclaimed pulling his head back into the car and rubbing his palms together. "I know a bunch of the old timers are coming back. Are their any new staff?"

"There are a few new guys in senior camp, mostly on high ropes staff and a few trip leaders," his father responded. "Other than that it's just the replacement they brought in for Rusty."

"I can't believe he finally retired," Blaine said hanging his head almost reverently. Rusty had been the head of the waterfront for as long as anyone could remember, but he finally decided to retire and move to Florida with his family. Everyone had figured that the camp would pull a returning staff member up for the position, but in a surprise move they hired someone new. "I'm still not sure I understand why they got someone totally fresh faced. Jim or Henry could have done the job almost as well as Rusty. Hell, after a few years they might have done it as well."

"I think you hit the reason right there. They would have done everything exactly the same as Rusty did and while he was amazing and will be missed I think the administration is looking to shake things up, bring in new ideas," Blaine's dad explained. "The kid has killer credentials and he's only 21. With any luck, he'll stick around for the long hall."

0000000000

"I'm not really understanding what you mean," Kurt said, making an extreme effort to keep his voice even. He knew it wasn't the swim staff's fault that the last person to be in charge of the waterfront was the least organized human being on the planet. "Are you telling me that you have absolutely no previous lesson plans to work from...no notes on what was taught in previous years or notes on returning campers?"

"Rusty liked to keep everything in a filing cabinet in his cabin and it left with him I think. We never got to see it. He would just hand us a lesson plan at the beginning of the day and have us carry it out," Henry, a tall ginger, who had been a camper all his life and a swim instructor under Rusty, tried to explain. "He did everything. He tested new campers and put them in levels, made sure we met Red Cross regulation, dealt with the American Camping Association standards, and wrote all of the lesson plans."

Kurt took a deep calming breath in and out. Kurt had never actually been to summer camp as a kid. In fact if someone had asked him about five years ago if he would ever step foot in a summer camp he might have laughed in his or her face, but here he was two weeks into pre camp clinics with seven newly trained lifeguard/water safety instructor staff. A high school devotion to cheerleading led to an unexpectedly successful career in college diving for Kurt. He even went through some of the qualifying rounds for the Olympics (though he was out early on). After his first year on the team he took the training to be a lifeguard and WSI instructor so he could make some spare money in college. A year after that, he did the certification to teach those clinics to others. His experience, coupled with his chosen career path as a high school English teacher made him an ideal candidate to work at a summer camp. He was nervous at first, to join the community at an all boys camp. All his life, Kurt had fit in much better with girls, but he figured it would be a new and good learning experience for him. He was never one to avoid going out of his comfort zone.

He was prepared to spend a summer hanging out with a staff full of Finns and was pleasantly surprised by the generally high brain capacity he'd seen from the staff so far, but he was not expecting to have to completely re-write the entire swim curriculum and re-do all of the safety and insurance paperwork from square one.

"Alright," Kurt said, taking one more calming breath, "It will be fine. We'll just have to put in some extra hours tonight. Why don't we break for dinner and then we can..." Kurt didn't get to finish his sentence, however, as the entirety of his staff bounded off the dock towards a new staff member that had obviously just arrived. Kurt could barely make out a head of unruly curls underneath the seven bear hugs that the newcomer was receiving. Kurt could understand. These guys had all known each other for years, but he couldn't help but feel a small pang of discomfort every time there was an epic reunion such as this one.

Kurt was startled out of his staring by a voice from behind. It seemed one person had stayed behind on the dock, "That's Blaine. He's been coming here since he was like four or something. He took a few years off. They're just excited to have him back. I know it's hard at first, but you'll get to know everyone with time. It might even start to feel like home," came the soft Scottish accent of Amy, the only female waterfront staff and one of only seven women on staff in general. "I felt like a fish out of water my first few years, but I think you'll feel more comfortable in no time. And hey, I totally don't mind helping to get all of this paper work done tonight. We could make popcorn and drink cheep red wine until we're all done."

Kurt chuckled at her seemingly endless enthusiasm, but he was grateful. "That sounds great, Amy. I really appreciate the help..." Kurt said shuffling some papers away before heading to dinner, "...and the advice. I'm sure you're right. It's just going to take some time."


	2. Chapter 2

**Woot Woot, next chapter. Love you guys. Love the reviews. I'll respond to them tonight once I put my campers to bed. I read them _Land of Stories_ every night and they're almost as obsessed with it as I am. I love it.**

"I love arriving on pasta bar night," Blaine said shoving an extra large bite of spaghetti into his mouth. "It's like a welcome party for my mouth," he said, not bothering to swallow first. He was sitting up in the mess hall at a table full of his camp buddies that had already arrived. "Plus I have to carb up before all the crap we have to do tomorrow."

There was a collective groan around the table. It was always fun to have a few weeks to bond before the campers showed up, but the work that went along with setting up camp was tedious at best. "At least you only have a week of set up," Sam, one of the guys from the swim dock, exclaimed. "we've all been here training for like three weeks now, and let me tell you a rainy June in Maine is not the ideal place to do a lake front lifeguarding course."

"Yeah, plus the new waterfront director is like a slave driver," another guy, Tim, piped up.

"He's not that bad," Sam responded, elbowing Tim in the ribs. "I can tell he's just stressed with taking over the position. He'll probably calm down once everything's set up."

"I doubt it," Tim said nodding his head towards Kurt who was sitting at a table with the rest of the supervisors. "Judging by the looks of things he probably likes have a stick up his ass."

There were a few snorts around the table, but Henry elbowed him from the other side, "come on, dude—not cool. We don't even know if he's actually gay yet. You're just stereotyping. Plus, judging by the way he taught the clinics, he's probably going to be a bad ass supervisor."

Blaine went still watching the conversation unfold in front of him, not even chewing the bite of pasta he's just taken. He knew the guys were just kidding around and it was good to hear that most of them didn't really care about that stuff, but he was still hyper aware of his surroundings, only moving his head slightly to look at who Tim pointed out.

What he saw made his breath catch in his throat. His eyes were met with a head of chestnut brown hair in a soft well-groomed swoop, impossibly creamy, pale skin for someone who worked on a dock all day, and a pair of sparkling blue eyes. Blaine couldn't remember the last time he noticed what someone was wearing when at camp. They all wore uniforms for pete's sake, but the man, Kurt, Blaine reminded himself, had managed to stand out in a sea of khaki and forest green. He was wearing a pair of well fitting khaki, straight legged pants and a forest green Locoste shirt. Pinned to his shirt was a delicate silver brooch in the shape of a dolphin.

Meanwhile, Sam had been trying to get his attention, "Anderson...Anderson! Earth to Anderson," Sam shouted, finally getting his attention by smacking him on the back of the head.

"Jesus, Evans, what do you want?" Blaine said, snapping at his friend, but genuinely irritated at himself for allowing such a long gawking period.

"Cool your jets man," Sam said, putting up his hands in surrender. "I was just asking if you were down for a movie and some beers tonight."

Blaine slumped a little, sorry that he had snapped, "oh yeah man, that sounds cool. I'll see you in the staff room once I get my stuff unpacked."

0000000000

"What the hell are they watching," Kurt said as he plopped his paperwork down on the table in the staff room and sat next to Amy. The TV area was relatively separate from where he was sitting down to work, but the group of boys in the other room weren't exactly being quiet.

"It's called _Wet Hot American Summer_. It's a movie about summer camp, so they watch it at least once a year," Amy said pushing a plastic cup of wine towards a grateful Kurt. "It's less watching at this point and more shouting the words at the screen. The emptier those beer bottles get, the louder they'll become I'm afraid."

Kurt sighed deeply pulling out the first set of ACA safety standard forms, "It was so much quieter before the rest of the staff showed up," he said with a rye smile. "I guess it's just going to get even worse when the kids get here."

"That might be true, but can I give you a little advice?" Amy said, taking on another form to fill out and averting her gaze as she waited for the response. When Kurt answered in the affirmative she continued. "I know that we don't know each other well yet, but I can tell that you're not exactly in your comfort zone. I love the way you're running the dock. I think you're giving us a structure and organization that we've been needing for a long time, but I just hope that you allow yourself to have fun too. I think if you really try to embrace camp you might surprise yourself with how much fun you're having."

Kurt was quiet for a moment. He couldn't pretend that he hadn't been thinking something similar. Every day he told himself that it would be the day he would try and bond with the other guys on staff, but it was just so hard. For one, as an 'Uncle' (any staff that didn't have a group of boys to look after directly were called an Aunt or Uncle) he lived in a small cabin by himself and he wasn't afforded the opportunity to live with all of the other guys during pre-camp. Perhaps more importantly though, ever since his high school days, hanging around with guys like that had always given him a bit of anxiety.

"You're right," Kurt said, glancing back at the boys who were all laughing and shouting at the TV screen. "I know you're right, but guys like that don't always appreciate having the gay kid hanging around."

Amy's face was one of sympathy, but not surprise. She had suspected as much, but she wasn't giving up, "Hey, guys like what?" she asked. "You don't want them to stereotype you so don't stereotype them. Some of those guys are incredibly sweet. Sure, some of them can be crude and rough, but most of them will surprise you. Just give them a chance. I don't think you'll be disappointed."

Kurt sighed again and turned back to his work, "Once again, I know you're right. I'll just have to buck up. Starting tomorrow I will be the new and improved ready to bond Kurt Hummel."

Amy chuckled, "that's the spirit."

0000000000

Early morning swimming in the lake (called Moose Pond) was one of the things that Blaine missed the most about being at camp. He loved rising before the wake up bell and getting some early morning exercise in. It was also a great way to get some alone time which was a rarity in his line of work.

He allowed the cool water to wash over his head and the soothing strokes work his muscles. He couldn't help but let his thoughts wander to Kurt, who he had yet to work up the courage to talk to. Part of him felt irrepressibly drawn to the other man, but another, currently stronger part was afraid of what it would mean for him and his other friendships at camp. He knew it would probably feel good to be able to connect with someone else about his sexuality, but on the other hand he couldn't even be sure that he was gay. He was living proof that you can't tell just by looking at someone.

He was still debating the merits of introducing himself when his decision was made for him, "is their room for one more in here," Kurt's soft voice came from the dock right when Blaine was pulling up for a breath. There was obviously ample room for swimming, but Kurt thought it was polite to make his presence known.

Blaine was momentarily taken aback the the object of his thoughts was suddenly there and talking to him no less, but he thankfully recovered quickly, "uh...yeah...of course. I'd love some company."

"Great," Kurt said, pleased that his first foray into chatting with another staff member outside of work time seemed to be going okay so far. "Do you swim every morning or is this just a one time thing?" Kurt continued mentally patting himself on the back for extending the conversation.

"I try to. Sometimes when the kids get here it's harder to get out of bed in the morning, but I usually make it out," Blaine said, waiting with his hand on the side of the dock for the other man to put his goggles on and slip into the lake. As predicted, once he started talking to Kurt, he found it nearly impossible to stop, and when Kurt was finally floating beside him in the water he stuck out his hand to introduce himself. "I'm Blaine," he said, giving his signature smile.

"Kurt," he responded, returning the damp handshake.

**In reference to me leaving it there I can only really say: lol**


	3. Chapter 3

**Short update today because it's my birthday weekend and I haven't really had time to write between time off and taking care of my campers (love em, but their awfully needy haha). It's likely that I'll get another chapter up tomorrow :). **

After about a half an hour Kurt hopped out and decided to let himself dry in the sun. There was still forty five minutes until breakfast and it seemed like it was going to be one of the first really warm days of the summer. Blaine was still finishing his workout, but he couldn't keep himself from sneaking glances at Kurt's body lying on the dock when he came up to breathe.

After about five more minutes, Kurt had almost fallen asleep when he felt someone sit down on the dock beside him. Blaine was toweling off his hair and stretching his legs, but had yet to say anything so Kurt decided to break the silence. "So...I don't want to sound like a party pooper, but you're not actually allowed to go swimming by yourself," Kurt said, giving Blaine a bit of a sheepish look. "I know that the last director was sort of relaxed about the rules, but I just want everyone to be safe."

Blaine looked over at Kurt. He was biting his lip and refusing to meet Blaine's eye, obviously worried that Blaine would react badly. "Hey, I can definitely appreciate that," Blaine said, pleased that he could make the other man perk up immediately. "Maybe I don't have to swim alone, though? Is this a one time thing or would you want to swim with me more often?"

Kurt finally picked his heads up to look directly at Blaine. He wondered how he hadn't noticed how attractive the other man was previously. He scolded himself slightly for letting his thoughts drift that way and quickly answered the question, hoping that the pause wasn't too obvious or awkward. "I'm used to swimming every morning, so I'd love to."

"Great!" Blaine said, ignoring the niggling voice in the back of his mind telling him that he might be getting himself into trouble. "How about I pick you up in your cabin on my way down. You live in Dock Side, right?"

Kurt nodded and smiled broadly. Perhaps Blaine could be his first male friend at camp and his ticket into getting to know the other guys. He was clearly already well liked and respected.

The two men heard the the wake up bell ring in the distance and they both got up to leave the dock. "So were you planning on showering before breakfast or is it okay if I go."

Blaine paused at the end of the dock to slip on his shoes and turned back to Kurt with a confused look, "I mean...I was planning on taking a shower, but you do know that there are four stalls in the shower house," Blaine said, unhooking the rope that blocked off the waterfront and letting Kurt go through before hooking it again. "We don't have to take turns."

"Oh..." Kurt said, once again looking uncomfortable, "I...it's just...some of the other guys said that they weren't comfortable. I don't want to get off on the wrong foot...I don't mind, really." Blaine gave Kurt a look indicating that he still didn't understand and Kurt huffed, frustrated that he would have to come right out with it. "I just mean...as most people assume, I'm gay and I understand if you'd rather not shower at the same time as me."

Blaine looked back at Kurt with an unreadable expression on his face, but if Kurt wasn't mistaken, it almost looked like sympathy, "Kurt...I...I don't know what other people have said to you or who's said it," that was a lie, Blaine had a pretty good idea who on staff would say something like that, "but you have to know, not all of us are like that. I mean, for pete sake I..." but he caught himself. He wasn't ready to open that can of worms yet. He was so close. It was right at the tip of his tongue, but the words refused to come. He had a feeling that Kurt might be someone he could come to confide in, but they had only just met. He certainly wasn't ready for that yet. "I don't judge you at all and I know plenty of staff members feel the the same so why don't we go take a quick shower and then I'll introduce you to some more guys at breakfast."

Kurt, seemingly oblivious to Blaine's internal dialogue, once again gave Blaine a grin that practically made his heart stop, nodded, and followed the other man up to the shower house.

**I get this feeling that this version of Blaine is actually bursting at the seams to tell someone already, but his head is getting in the way of him letting go. Go figure...Blaine is closed off emotionally...I've never interpreted him that way before...**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry for any type-os, but I'm rushing to get this out before I leave on a two day paddling trip tomorrow. Love you all...my time is so limited and I miss responding to every review, but know that I love them and appreciate them and every one makes me so happy.**

"Dude, no way, I drove last time," Sam said at the breakfast table that morning. "There's no way I'm going to be designated driver _again_." There were about six guys sitting at the table discussing that night's visit to Camp Sun Light, their sister camp.

"Sam's right, we do always make him drive," Blaine said sitting down at the table and gesturing for Kurt to do the same. A few guys looked over curiously at the two men, probably wondering what they were doing together, but no one said anything. "Someone else has to do it this time."

"I can drive," came a voice from Blaine's left, now the whole table was definitely looking at Kurt, surprised that the man had volunteered so readily without really knowing where they were going. No one was as surprised about the outburst as Kurt was, however, and the man immediately blushed and looked down at his scrambled eggs. "Uh...I just mean...I have a car and I don't really like to drink all that much so I don't mind. It's fine I don't have to...just forget it. Sorry for butting in."

0000000000

Kurt learned that morning that there is a reason you don't volunteer for something unless you actually know what you're volunteering for.

"I think it will be fun," Amy said as she rummaged through Kurt's trunk, helping him decide what to wear. "You told me just last night that you wanted to get to know the guys better. What better way to do it?"

Kurt turned from where he was putting moisturizer on his face and gave Amy one of his signature raised eyebrow looks. "Something tells me that sitting around while a bunch of 'dudes' fawn over the only concentrated female contact they've had all week, while drinking cheap beer won't be the best time for 'getting to know you' chats," Kurt said turning back to what he was doing. "Not to mention I have to drive those drunken Cretans home at the end of the night.

Amy snorted, but gave Kurt an understanding look, "I guess you're probably right, but it's just one night and who knows? Like I said before, the guys might surprise you."

0000000000

"Ready to go?" Sam was standing at the entrance of Kurt's cabin with three guys standing behind him. One was Blaine and the other he recognized as archery staff, but his didn't know his name. He stiffened slightly when he saw that the fifth guy was the one who had made a fuss about the showers, but he shook it off quickly, remembering Blaine's reassuring words.

Kurt closed his trunk and picked up his keys off his bedside table, "Yeah, I'm all set," Kurt responded following the four other men out the door and closing it behind him. "One of you will have to direct me, though. I've never been their before."

"Don't worry about it," Blaine responded, "I can sit up front with you and navigate. We're just going to stop by the staff room and pick up some drinks and then we can be on our way. By the way this is Inigo," Blaine said gesturing to the one unknown staff member who reached his hand out to shake Kurt's and said hello, "and behind him is Tim."

"Um...we've met," Kurt said, keeping his hands tucked in his pockets as Tim refused his hand shake the first time. Inigo gave Tim a confused look and Sam and Blaine looked a little pissed off, but no one said anything else. Kurt, not wanting to prolong the awkward moment turned back to Inigo, "Where are you from?" he asked having noticed an accent when they greeted each other.

"I'm from Mexico," he said leading the way to the staff room, "My sister was a camper at Sun Light and I decided to follow her up to Maine this year. Is this your first year, too?"

Kurt smiled, relieved to have another newbie in the group, "yeah, It's actually my first time in a summer camp in general. I never went growing up."

"I'm sure you both will love it here," Sam piped up, shouldering the 30 rack of Miller High Life as they made their way to the staff parking lot. "Do you just do archery or something else?"

0000000000

The guys continued their easy conversation for the entire trip. Kurt stayed relatively quiet, since he was concentrating on driving, but he was content to take in what the others were saying. He was pleased to hear that Tim was also remaining relatively quiet.

"Just pull in here and drive down the dirt road for about a quarter mile. Jane said we could park in the lot by the dining hall. They should just be finishing up with dinner," Blaine said, giving Kurt the last direction. "It's a huge building. You can't miss it."

"So when are you going to stop being an idiot and let that girl out of the friend zone," Sam said, shoving his way forward so he was leaning on the center consul, irritatingly close to Blaine's ear. "She's been after you practically since your lower senior year. Throw her a bone already. A summer fling can't hurt."

Kurt saw Blaine turn an impressive shade of red out of the corner of his eye, "I've told you a million times, Evans. I'm just not into her," Blaine said. "She's like a sister to me."

"You've got to be kidding me, Anderson," Tim said, piping up for the first time. "That girl is hot as hell. She could probably even turn fancy pants on over here."

It was Kurt's turn to go red, but more out of anger than embarrassment. Luckily he was saved from a confrontation when Sam scolded him for being rude to the DD. Blaine was left feeling guilty that he was glad for the rude comment, since it took the pressure off of him.

Kurt turned off the car and everyone started to get out. Before he had even stepped fully onto the gravel Blaine was being accosted by a blur of long blonde curls. "Blaine!" the blur practically shrieked as she pulled the aforementioned man into a bone crushing hug. "It's so good to see you I missed you!"

Blaine gingerly peeled the girl off of him, but his smile remained in place, "It's good to see you too, Jane," Blaine said, holding the girl at arms length. "It's been a long time. You've met Sam and Tim before," Blaine said gesturing to the other guys, "And this is Inigo and Kurt. They're new this year."

"Pleasure," Kurt said after she had shook Inigo's hand. He wasn't sure what it was, but there was something about the girl that he didn't like.

Blaine, seemingly oblivious to the iciness in Kurt's tone continued talking, "Kurt is the new Rusty and Inigo is teaching archery and ropes course."

"Those are big shoes to fill, Kurt," Jane said linking her arm with Blaine's seemingly against the other man's will and leading the group towards the staff room. "I bet you'll do great though."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Kurt said only barely suppressing an eye roll.

0000000000

It only took a couple of hours and several drinks for everyone for the girls to insist that they all play a game of spin the bottle. After the initial meeting in the parking lot, Jane had led them all to the staff room where they met up with a bunch of the counselors from Sun Light. Kurt seemed to be the only one who was sober and also the only one who didn't think it was the best idea ever.

"I'm going first!" One girl, Sammy Kurt thought her name was, said loudly. She spun the empty beer bottle and ended up having to kiss on of the other girls. They laughed and gave each other a kiss on the lips with an exaggerated 'muah' sound.

"Me next!" Jane shouted, sending a wink to an oblivious Blaine who was drunkenly tapping out a rhythm on the wood floor of the room. "Oh what a surprise!" she exclaimed, not so discretely nudging the bottle so that it was pointed at Blaine.

"She does this every year," Sam whispered to Kurt with a giggle.

Blaine looked up seemingly surprised that someone was breaking him from his reverie, but recognition dawned on his face in time for him to give Jane a brief kiss on the mouth. He was about to pull away, but the girl had other plans, almost roughly yanking Blaine's head forward in a more heated kiss as Blaine's eyes went comically wide at the situation.

"Okay, I think that's enough," one of the more sober girls choked out, pulling on the back of Jane's tshirt.

Blaine had a look on his face that Kurt once again had trouble reading. It wasn't quite anger, wasn't quite disgust, and wasn't quite irritation. It definitely wasn't enjoyment, but Kurt couldn't really put a name to it. All he knew was that when Blaine suddenly stood up and said he needed some air, he didn't even think twice about getting up and following him. He was the DD, right? It was his responsibility to look after anyone who was drinking. At least that's what he told himself.

Kurt didn't have to look very hard. He saw Blaine sitting hunched over on the swim dock with his feet dipped in the water. "Hey," he said simply sitting down next to Blaine. When it became clear that Blaine wasn't going to say anything he tried again, "So um...that was some kiss."

Blaine let out a humorless laugh, but then went silent again. Finally he spoke up, "she does this every year. I don't know why I'm letting it bother me so much."

"I know Sam mentioned something..."

But Blaine wasn't finished, "I know she's not making a great first impression, but she really is like a sister to me. I love the girl to death. She can't hold her liquor, but I love her," Blaine said slumping a little further into himself. "Just not like that, I can't love her like that, not the way she wants. I can usually laugh it off, but this year...this year it just seems so much worse." There was another long pause while Kurt let Blaine gather his thoughts, "Maybe it's because...maybe it's because this year there is someone that I want to kiss like that."

Kurt was a little taken aback at Blaine's confession, but he took it in stride. After the kindness the man has shown him. he was bound and determined to be a good friend to Blaine. "Well maybe you should just tell this other girl how you feel. Then maybe Jane will back off."

Blaine let out another humorless laugh, "It's just...it's just not that simple."

"Why not?" Kurt asked.

There it was again, a perfect opening for Blaine to tell him. His brain was screaming 'because I'm gay!' Maybe if he had been a few more drinks in he would have been able to say it, but his blood alcohol level was not nearly enough to make the confession come out. "I just can't," he said sullenly. "Can we...can we just gather everyone and go home?"

Kurt nodded, deciding not to press, "Of course. You just wait here. I'll go get the others."


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm back! Yay...cheers. That was the last trip of the summer. I'm back for good now and now that I'm done ugly crying about my campers leaving I'll have way more time to write.**

**PS- we finished the _Land of Storie_s last night...loved it.**

"So are you ready for tomorrow?" Blaine asked from his spot on the dock. Kurt and Blaine had fallen into somewhat of a habit with their morning swimming. They would swim for about forty minutes and then spend a little time sunning and talking on the dock until it was time to shower and get ready for the day. They hadn't brought up the moment they'd had at camp Sun Light the other day, but the event had seemed to make them closer none the less. "The day right before the kids finally come is always super stressful for me."

"I think that's more a cabin counselor feeling. Most of my stressful stuff happened during pre-camp, going over safety stuff with the counselors," Kurt responded, languidly stretching out his muscles, blissfully oblivious (blissful in Blaine's opinion) to the fact that Blaine was staring intently at each ripple of Kurt's muscles. "Things will pick up for me again once we start teaching the swim lessons. What about you? How are you feeling?"

"Well I've finished my cabin poster and all of my beds are made up," Blaine said. "I guess the only thing left to do is wait. Those first few days are hard. Especially on the junior campers I have."

"You have the eight year olds right?" Kurt said, finally sitting up to face the other man. "That sounds hard. I can't imagine working so much with the youngest kids."

"Yeah, and the first couple of nights are prime home sickness times," Blaine said, chuckling a little to himself, "but I love that age group. It's hard, but it's incredibly rewarding and it's been said that I have the magic touch dealing with crying little kids."

"You better have the magic touch if you're going to pry them away from their parents tomorrow to get them in the lake for swimmies and tippies," Kurt said, finally getting up to head to the showers. In an effort to make the transition into camp activities smoother, camp Fire Light had a tradition of doing swimmies (the swim test that would determine a child's class level) and tippies (a test where the kids practice capsizing and then getting back into a canoe) literally the moment the children get settled in. That meant it was the counselor's job to heard away anxious parents and, in Blaine's case, get six nervous eight year olds into their bathing suites and into the water.

Blaine laughed again and Kurt thought that the sound of his laughter was something he could get used to. "It's not so bad. They're usually pretty excited to get in the water. The older kids are much harder in that department. I'm much more worried about the night time. It's heartbreaking when you have a kids coming into your counselor area crying because they miss their mom and dad. All you can do is hug them and hope that they feel better."

"You sound like you make a great counselor," Kurt said as they were about to part ways into their own cabins.

If Kurt didn't know any better he would say that Blaine was blushing, "I'm alright. I do my best," he said, humbly. "Fire Light is special to me and I want to make sure that it's special for the kids as well."

Before the two got much farther from each other, Kurt remembered something and called out to Blaine to wait a second. "I totally forgot. You're the last person on the waterfront staff that I haven't benched with," Kurt said, shooting Blaine a warm smile. "Can you come to my cabin after breakfast?"

Blaine gulped and hoped that it wasn't audible, but he answered Kurt quickly anyway, "um...yes...yes of course. I'll see you then."

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Blaine's panic continued to rise as he got ready for and went into the shower. On its face, bench talks weren't that big of a deal. The idea was that each staff member sat and had a one on one conversation with their unit director (if they were a cabin counselor) and their activity supervisor. Knowing each other intimately was supposed to and succeeded in forming a bond that made working together much easier. The trouble was that these bench talks had a reputation for getting extremely emotional and extremely personal.

Blaine had already benched with Eddie, who was the Junior unit director and something of an uncle figure to Blaine, and by the end of the talk Blaine was crying and confessing to him that he never felt like he was good enough for his father. There was no telling what he would confess if put in a similar situation with Kurt.

When he had tried to explain the idea behind to bench talk to his friends at home they had trouble understanding, but to Blaine, who had grown up with them, thought they made perfect sense. For seven weeks, Blaine was essentially going to become a single father of six young and impressionable children. Bench talks were meant to bring your weaknesses out into the open so that you could start the process of working on them and trying to avoid passing them on to the children.

Actually, those talks he got to have with Eddie three times a summer had always been something he looked forward to. Rusty had never been a sentimental, but his talks had their own gruff cache. Kurt would probably be something different entirely.

He let the hot water of the shower run over him and sooth his sore muscles. Unfortunately, it wasn't doing anything to sooth his racing mind. As hard as Blaine tried to pretend it wasn't happening, he was falling in love with Kurt Hummel. Blaine had been in a few short relationships before. There was one guy that he hooked up with a few times in high school and a couple of guys that he dated in college, but not one of them made him feel the way Kurt did. He was beautiful inside and out and Blaine couldn't count the number of times he'd had to stop himself from reaching out and grabbing his hand while they were walking somewhere together or pulling him into a hug when he looked particularly worried about some safety standard, and it had only been a week and a half.

Blaine turned off the shower and made his way back to cabin to get ready for breakfast. Blaine didn't know what would happen during his bench talk, but he knew that things were probably about to change. He only hope it would be for the better.


	6. Chapter 6

Blaine made his first mistake moments after walking through the door of Kurt's cabin. "Oh my god!" Blaine said forgetting himself and standing in front of one of the many posters that Kurt had adorning his walls. "Is that Marion Cotillard's 2010 _Vogue_ cover? That's my favorite!"

Kurt gave him an odd and shocked look. It only took Blaine a moment to realize his mistake and he quickly clamped his mouth shut and frantically tried to think of a way to backtrack. Blaine had been slowly opening up to Kurt, showing him more and more of himself as they got to know each other, but Blaine felt a bit like the curtain had been pulled away while he was in the shower and it was entirely his own fault. Him and his stupid mouth.

"I...um...my friend from school got it for me for my birthday," Kurt said, thankfully breaking the uncomfortably long silence. "It's cool that you're into that. Not many guys I know read _Vogue_. Or at least not many admit to it," Kurt said with a smirk, easily dissipating the tense atmosphere.

Kurt was so casual about it that Blaine began to wonder if maybe he had made the tension up in his head, "I'm not like most guys," Blaine mumbled almost inaudibly. Kurt didn't bother asking him to repeat himself.

"So why don't we just dive in," Kurt said, hopping up onto his bed. There was nothing in the sparse cabin (apart from Kurt's many knickknacks and pictures) but a bed, shelves, and a set of drawers so Blaine gingerly sat down next to him, folding his hands in his lap and struggling to keep his expression neutral. Kurt side eyed him, wondering why Blaine was acting so nervous, but decided to get started anyway. "So I guess first off, I wanted to ask you how pre-camp was for you. Do you feel like you have everything you need from me before the season starts?"

Blaine began to calm a bit. This was a question he could answer, "Of course we can never prepare for every eventuality, but I feel ready to face anything that happens," Blaine said. "Plus, I feel more comfortable with the safety regulations that I ever have before. As much as I loved Rusty he used to slack in that area. One year he didn't even have any search and rescue drills."

Kurt looked positively appalled at that, but quickly composed himself and moved on, "I'm glad you feel comfortable. You're the last of the canoeing staff I have to talk to and I wanted to ask you something," Kurt began. "Part of my job is selecting coordinators for each division under the larger water front heading. You are by far the most experienced of the canoe staff and I think we get along well, so how would you like to be a member of the waterfront key staff?"

"Really?" Blaine said, a huge smile gracing his face and all traces of former awkwardness gone. "I'd love to. It would give me a great opportunity to work on my lesson planning skills," and to spend more time with you was the unspoken addition.

"Great, now that we have that settled let's move on," Kurt glanced down at the typed up sheet that anyone conducting a bench talk got from the camp. "How about you? How are you feeling about being at camp this year as a staff member. I know you feel intellectually ready, but what about emotionally, psychologically?"

There went Blaine's confidence again, but he was determined to be as honest with Kurt as possible. He was telling a huge lie of omission by staying in the closet, but the least he could do was trust Kurt with his other thoughts. "I'm really happy to be here. It's the closest thing to a home I think I've ever had," Blaine began, "but as I get older, I guess I sometimes wonder how well the people here really know me." Blaine took a steadying breath, "I mean like before, I admitted to you that I read _Vogue_, but I could never tell any of the other guys that stuff. Or, remember that talk we had on the dock about me liking someone and not being able to say anything? I would have never admitted that to someone else. I don't know what it is about you I just..."

"It's normal to feel more comfortable opening up to some people more than others, Blaine," Kurt said, using the other man's name to get his attention more fully. "I'm grateful and flattered that I can be that person even though we've only known each other for such a short time..."

"Camp can be like that," Blaine said offering a small smile and nudging Kurt to continue.

"It's my first time so I'll have to take your word for it," Kurt said with a wink. "It's okay not to share one hundred percent of yourself with everyone, but maybe you could take some time to re-evaluate the things you choose to share and not to share. Maybe think critically about why."

"I just...I don't want it to change how people think about me," Blaine said, folding his arms in a protective gesture.

Kurt raised an eyebrow, "It sounds like you're thinking of something very specific," Kurt said. "Is it something I know about you?" Blaine shook his head, not moving his arms at all. Kurt tried again, "Is it something anyone knows about you?"

Blaine nodded, "with the exception of my camp friends, pretty much everyone in my life knows."

"You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to, but please know, Blaine, I would never tell anyone anything you told me in confidence, especially not at a bench talk," Kurt said, seriously. "Heck, I'm great at keeping secrets. I managed to keep my own homosexuality a secret for practically half my life!" Kurt said, trying to lighten the mood. It soon became apparent that his comment had the exact opposite effect. Blaine turned to Kurt with one of the most intense 'deer caught in the headlights' looks that he had ever seen. "Blaine?" Kurt said putting a hand on the other man's shoulder, "Blaine is everything okay?" Kurt didn't know for sure why Blaine had reacted that way, but he could guess.

Blaine took a deep shuddering breath. There wasn't any turning back at this point. He could make up some lie that he knew Kurt would pretend to believe, but it would all come out eventually, "Kurt, there's something I really need to tell you."

**A/N: lol**


	7. Chapter 7

**Did you really think I would do that to you long term? I love you all too much for that. **

Kurt didn'tsay anything. He simply gave Blaine's shoulder a squeeze before moving his hand and giving the other man his full attention, "and I know I should have told you sooner and I have no excuse other than that I'm scared. I've always been a coward." Kurt looked like he was about to protest, but instead continued to level Blaine with a steady, encouraging gaze. "I came out to my parents when I was fourteen. After that I told a few people at school that I was gay, and then suddenly everyone knew. That year was really rough in school for me and camp was like an escape. Each year I kept it to myself, it got harder to come clean, until I no longer even considered it an option."

"Blaine, I..." Kurt began to respond, but Blaine wasn't finished yet.

"Then you came along and you were so open and proud and god, so beautiful and it was like every wall that I had been building up for so long just came crashing down," Kurt could see barely suppressed tears threatening to spill from Blaine's eyes, "and oh my god, I can't believe I just said all that."

Blaine tried to bury his face in his hands, but Kurt was too fast and grabbed both of Blaine's hands in his own, giving Blaine a kind smile, "was that all?" Kurt said gently. "You really had me worried there for a second wondering what your deep dark secret was. I'm glad we only have a bit of gayness to contend with."

Blaine couldn't help but let out an ungraceful snort through the tears that were now spilling over his eyes and onto his cheeks. Kurt smiled even wider at the fact that he managed to make Blaine laugh, "Jeez, I always cry at these talks," Blaine said, hastily wiping his eyes.

It was Kurt's turn to laugh, "You'll have to tell me what Rusty did to make you cry another time," Kurt said before he got serious again. "And as for the other thing you said...um...about me being beautiful...you're um...not to bad yourself."

Blaine suddenly felt his cheek's warm and he just knew that he was blushing, "I did say that didn't I," Blaine said, suddenly extremely aware of his hands in Kurt's, "I...I hope I didn't make you uncomfortable..."

"Blaine!" Kurt practically shouted. "Did you hear what I said? Of course you didn't make me uncomfortable. I'm...I'm flattered actually." Kurt internally debated what he wanted to say next for a few minutes. Blaine was his co-worker living in extremely close quarters, but hey, it was only for the summer and you only live once, "Can I...can I kiss you?"

Blaine didn't respond verbally. He didn't think he could. He just gave Kurt a shaky nod and waited with baited breath to feel Kurt's lips on his. It was a simple kiss. It was relatively brief and there were no tongues, just their lips gently massaging together, but to Blaine it couldn't have been more perfect. They pulled away from each other, but their foreheads remain connected as the two men caught their breaths, "you have no idea how badly I've been wanting to do that."

Kurt let out a breathy laugh, "I think I have an idea," he said before leaning in for another kiss. This one was longer, but no more complex, and when they pulled away for the second time, Blaine was sporting a face splitting grin and a flush high on his cheeks.

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"You look cheerful," Blaine's father noticed. Tthe two were sitting together during lunch, as was their habit on Sunday afternoons. His tone was matter of fact.

Blaine looked up in surprise and realized that he had ben humming and smiling to himself for the past five minutes. The thought of why, only made him smile more goofily, "I'm just excited for the campers to get here," Blaine answered quickly.

His dad seemed to accept that answer and moved on, "so I've heard that Kurt was planning to tap you for canoe coordinator at your bench talk today," he said, taking a bite of his sandwich. "You must have made quite the impression on him if he offered you the job instead of Liz."

Blaine nearly choked on his soup. He knew there was literally no way that his dad knew that he had spent the better part of the morning making out in the aforementioned director's cabin, and that he had barely put himself together in time to meet him for lunch, but the mention of kurt was jarring none the less. "Um...yeah he's cool," is what Blaine decided would actually come out of his mouth. "We get along well."

"Well good," his father said. "See you stay in his good graces. It will look good on your resume to have a supervisory position."

**I debated a lot about when Kurt should find out, but I decided that I really wanted this to be a story about Kurt helping Blaine be honest with his childhood friends and not a story about Blaine lying to Kurt. I also have a feeling that cannon Blaine had a difficult time getting anything past cannon Kurt and I wanted to stay true to that.**


	8. Chapter 8

"Alright guys, first things first," Blaine said to his six new charges. "I need you all to change into your swim suites and we're going to meet Uncle Kurt down at the dock to do your swimmie test." One of the things that Blaine loved best about having the youngest kids in camp was that every single experience was completely new to them. Everything camp had to offer was still waiting for them to discover.

Blaine quickly went over names again in his head while the boys got ready to swim. There was Peter, a brunette with freckles who had come to camp with every piece of sports equipment a little boy could possibly need or want, and was already making fast friends with Eddie who also loved sports. Then there was Julian, a kid with sandy blonde hair and what he could already tell would be an infectious smile. Xander was small and bookish. Blaine was looking forward to helping him come out of his shell. Ollie was so far the most outspoken of the group. His little brother was severely mentally handicapped and Blaine had already been warned by his UD that he might be craving some attention now that he was at camp on his own. Last, but not least was Alexander (but he went by Ale), who was from Mexico and was Inigo's little brother. He hadn't spoken much, Inigo had told him ahead of time that he might be shy about his English, but he hadn't been shy about pressing a zip top bag full of Mexican spices into Blaine's hand and telling him that it was a gift he brought from home.

"Cabin one, are you all ready?" Blaine asked, poking his head out of the counselor area. As anticipated, he found six eight year olds in various states of not ready-ness. "Alright gang, I'm timing you and for every minute you guys can shave off of your getting ready time when we're in the cabin together, I'll add a minute to flashlight time at night!" Blaine bribed. Experience had taught him that this was a highly effective way of getting kids to move faster and within the next few minutes his campers were ready to go. Blaine chuckled to himself. Even without incentive, telling kids they were being timed was always a hilariously easy way to make them go more quickly.

Blaine gathered up his little minions (as he liked to call them in his head) and headed down to the swim dock so that his cabin could have their turn. Kurt was just finishing up with an Inty (the camp's term for intermediate) group and was ushering the boys off of the swim dock for ear drops to prevent swimmers ear. He was looking unfairly good in a pair of salmon swim trunks and the regulation forest green staff shirt that looked like a shapeless mess on everyone but Kurt. This morning he had chosen a colorfully painted sea star out of what Blaine had come to realize was an expansive collection of nautically themed pins that Kurt had brought with him to spice up his wardrobe.

"I can't do uniforms without a little piece of flair!" Kurt had told him during one of their first mornings on the dock together. The pair hadn't gotten very much time together since the previous morning, just a passing conversation at dinner and a quick good luck kiss that Kurt had given Blaine after their swim that morning, when they were both sure no one was looking. They hadn't talked about what they were yet, but Blaine wasn't sure he was ready for that conversation anyway.

"Cabin one, say hello to Uncle Kurt," there was a chorus of hellos from his boys and Kurt let out a small chuckle. "Kurt this is Xander, Peter, Julian, Ale, Ollie, and Eddie. We're here to start swimming, right guys!" their was another softer chorus of agreement.

Kurt couldn't help but smile brightly at Blaine in full on counselor mode, "It's so good to meet you all," Kurt said. "Why don't you all get into the water and we'll get started. They first thing you have to do for me is tread water for two minutes."

like Blaine had predicted, getting this age group into the water had been much easier than the group of Intys he'd had before, "so how's your first day been going," Blaine asked Kurt as the other man set the timer on his watch for two minutes.

"Pretty good," Kurt said, giving Blaine a smile. "We won't get to the hard stuff until tomorrow, though—at least not on the swim dock. How about you?"

"Great, the kids are great," Blaine said, looking down at his kids paddling absentmindedly through the water. So far they all seemed like relatively strong swimmers. "The goodbyes weren't too painful and hopefully there won't be too much in the way of waterworks tonight." Kurt hummed appreciatively and the two fell into a comfortable silence. After a few moments, blaine spoke up again, "So have you picked your day off yet because I thought maybe we could...I don't know...get the same day and go out together?"

"That sounds fun," Kurt said, amused by Blaine's hesitance. "What day were you assigned."

Since they didn't have any cabins, Uncles and Aunts were allowed to pick any day off they wanted, but cabin counselors had to go whichever day the UD thought made sense for cabin life, "I have Thursday."

"Thursday it is then."

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Kurt settled into the couch in the staff room and pulled out his cell phone to make a long overdue call. It was quieter than usual that night because cabin counselors were required to go to sleep with their kids on the first night. Kurt had the TV room entirely to himself.

After only two rings, the person on the other end picked up and exclaimed shrilly into the phone, "it's about time!" Rachel's unmistakeable voice practically shouted. "You can't just text me lyrics from _Grease _like that and not follow up. Spill it, Kurt. There's nothing better than a little summer loving."

Kurt responded quickly. He knew when he was in danger of Rachel bursting into song, "I was with the kids all day!" he defended. "This was my first chance to call." Kurt then proceeded to tell her all about Blaine, how they met, and their somewhat tumultuous process of getting together. "So I guess we're sort of a thing now, but I don't know how far I want to take it," Kurt said finishing up the story.

"Gosh, your life is like a movie," Rachel said, sighing on her side of the phone. "Star crossed lovers and everything.

"Hardly," Kurt responded. "I wouldn't necessarily call in the closet paired with no where near the closet star crossed, but I can appreciate the thrill of it. I don't think I would ever be someone's secret lover in real life, but for the summer, I feel like it will be kind of fun."

Rachel giggled and enthusiastically agreed. He could always count on Rachel to appreciate the drama in a situation, "what are you going to do if it gets serious, though. What if you actually end up really falling in love with this guy?"

Kurt took a second to think on the question, "honestly Rachel, it's the summer and I'm really just interested in having fun. It seems a little silly to think of that stuff when we're only going to be here for the next two months," Kurt said, trying to be practical. "After that we'll all leave this place and that summer magic we'll be gone and it will all just be a fond memory. Blaine's wonderful and I'm sure this time with him will be great, but the reality is, once the summer is over, it'll be time to say goodbye."

**You keep telling yourself that, Kurt.**


	9. Chapter 9

**A bit of fluff for you all and the story about the kid is based on actual things that happened in my cabin, enjoy!**

"Blaine...Blaine...Blaine," Blaine was startled awake by a tiny voice coming from the edge of his counselor nook. He looked over and saw the silhouette of one of his campers. "Blaine, I can't sleep," said a weepy voice in an unmistakeable Mexican accent. It was Ale.

Blaine quickly rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and shoved his glasses onto his face. A quick glance at his watch told him that it was only midnight, but on the first night everyone went to bed with their campers and Blaine had already been asleep for two hours. "What's wrong buddy," Blaine said, trying not to sound too tired as he patted the spot next to him on the bed. "Come sit down."

"I can't sleep," Ale repeated as he plopped down next to Blaine. He was clutching a small stuffed dog that Blaine hadn't noticed before and his thumb was shoved resolutely in his mouth until he took it out to speak again. "I tried counting sheep, but it didn't work."

Blaine worked hard to suppress a chuckle at that, instead he turned slightly so he was looking his camper in the eye, "well, how about you tell me what you usually do at home before you go to sleep."

Ale scrubbed at a tear that had escaped while Blaine was talking and took a few deep breaths before he was ready to respond. "Usually my parents and I pray together before I go to sleep and then they tuck me in with a hug."

Blaine exhaled deeply, 'the things I do for these kids,' he thought to himself. "What do you and your parents usually pray for?" Blaine asked.

Ale gave him an odd look like he didn't understand how Blaine could possibly not know, "We pray to Jesús."

At this Blaine did let out a little snort, but he quickly recovered. One of the only things that made Blane wish he had a co-counselor was that he didn't have anyone else to share moments like this with. Blaine had never been particularly religious, more spiritual, but the look that Ale was giving him, one that so clearly said 'duh,' was making it difficult to keep himself in check. "How about this," Blaine began, "I know I'm not your parents and it won't be the same, but how about every night you can come to me and we'll talk about the things that we're grateful for. Then, we can take a moment to think about all the people that we love like our friends and families and you can include Jesus in that."

Ale nodded, wiped away one more tear, and then unceremoniously threw his tiny arms around Blaine in a hug, "I'm grateful that I have such a nice counselor," he sniffed.

Blaine melted a little at that. Blaine would wake up in the middle of the night every night if it meant he could have moments like this with his campers, "that means a lot, buddy," Blaine said, giving him a light squeeze back. "I'm grateful I have such a wonderful bunch of kids in my cabin."

After that, Blaine led Ale back to his bed and tucked him in. Before he could make his way back to bed, he felt the boy tugging on his t-shirt, "you won't tell anyone about Perrito, will you?" Ale asked gesturing to his little stuffed animal.

Blaine brought his finger to his lips as if he were shushing someone, "it will be our little secret," he responded and with a wink, Blaine was crawling back into his own cot.

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"You look like you need that," Kurt commented as Blaine filled his mug at the coffee machine the next morning. The counselors were afforded a few minutes to linger by the pot this morning as the campers were busy trying to get to the one sheet of paper on the wall that had their table assignments.

"Yeah," Blaine said, taking a large draw from his mug, "I had a camper wake me up in the middle of the night because he was home sick. I had trouble falling asleep again after that, but it was fine. I think we worked out a good solution. It's actually a funny story. I'll have to tell you about it later."

"I'll be looking forward to it," Kurt said with a smile. "So I see we're at the same table this session," All of the tables sat eight campers and two counselors to serve drinks and food. While the campers switched seats once a week, the counselors stayed put for the entire session.

Blaine fiddled with the stirrer in his drink and allowed it to go unsaid that he had been the one in charge of assignments, "I think we'll make a good team," he said, leading the way to table five where they would be seated. "So, what did you do with all your free time last night," Blaine teased. Uncles didn't have a cabin to take care of, so he had a little extra time the night before.

"Very funny," Kurt said, taking his seat at one end of the table where the counselors sat. "I assigned swim levels so that we can start today and then I made some phone calls. I got to talk to my friend Rachel and I was able to check in with my Dad."

Blaine smiled. He loved getting small insights into Kurt's life, "Are you and your dad close?"

"The closest," Kurt responded. "I know I'm the son and he's the dad, but we've been taking care of each other for years now. I like to call a couple of times a week, make sure he's eating right," Kurt said with a chuckle.

"Does he live with your mom?" Blaine asked, trying to remain sensitive to all kinds of family dynamics. He of all people knew about that.

"My mom died when I was eight," Kurt said, waving Blaine off before he could even begin to apologize. "I miss her, but it was a long time ago. My dad remarried a wonderful woman named Carole and she's become like a second mother to me."

It was clear that the topic was no longer open for discussion, but even if it was the kids finally started filtering into the dining hall and it was time for the first breakfast of the season to begin.

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"Put to bed day two is officially over and done with," Blaine said, plopping down next to Kurt on the other man's bed. The two had agreed to meet in Kurt's cabin for a bit of alone time once Blaine managed to get all of his campers to sleep. "I'm totally ready to vedge."

Kurt chuckled and held out his arms in invitation. Blaine gratefully cuddled up to him and sighed contentedly, "Are the first few days always this exhausting?" Kurt asked with a yawn. "I felt like I could collapse after the last period today. I love teaching kids how to swim, but it's more tiring than Black Friday," Kurt said, without waiting for a response.

"Things will settle into a routine soon enough," Blaine said, planting a few kisses on the underside of Kurt's jaw. "It's always hard in the beginning. I'm going to relax at night this week, but after that I really need to start apartment hunting. My friends and I are moving to Brooklyn for our last year of college." Kurt looked down at Blaine with an unreadable expression that the other man almost missed because he was busy kissing his way down Kurt's neck, "what?" he asked when he finally noticed Kurt looking at him.

Kurt was startled out of his reverie quickly, "Oh...um...nothing...it's just...that's where I live, in Brooklyn," Kurt said, settling his head back down onto his pillow so that he was practically nose to nose with Blaine. "I graduated from school a semester early and I moved there with my best friend, Rachel. I think I mentioned her earlier today. I've been substitute teaching, but I'm trying to get a full time job in the city." Kurt wasn't sure how he felt about this new revelation, but now wasn't really the time to think about it.

Blaine was seemingly unfazed, "sweet," he responded, "now I know who to go to with questions about neighborhoods," he said happily before rubbing his nose against Kurt's in an eskimo kiss and leaning in for more kisses.


	10. Chapter 10

**I'm going to provide a canoeing glossary at the end of this chapter because I thought it would be annoying if I defined everything in the story. I keep forgetting to tell you all that I post some info about the story and occasional previews on my tumblr, practical-amanda. Don't hesitate to stop by and say hello!**

"Didn't anyone ever tell you that it's rude to stare?" Kurt said with an amused glint in his eye. He had just pulled himself up out of the lake after his morning swim and was toweling himself off. Blaine was still in the water, quite obviously gaping at Kurt's body.

Blaine smirked, "I figured I was allowed to at this point," Blaine said, finally hopping out himself. Their morning swims had taken a brief hiatus while they got into the swing of things, but camp had been going strong for a few days now and they were back to their old routine. "You certainly didn't mind how much I appreciated your body last night."

Kurt's cheeks turned slightly pink at this with the memory and it took everything in Blaine's power not to lean over to kiss the flushed face, "I suppose you and your tongue did earn a certain amount of ogling rights," Kurt replied, going from blushing school boy to sexy and coy with a speed that Blaine hadn't seen rivaled in anyone else.

Blaine's bumped his shoulder against Kurt's and the two made their way off the dock in comfortable silence. Blaine was just about to ask Kurt was he wanted to do on their day off tomorrow when he were interrupted by someone calling his name, "Blaine!" Sam called from half way down the cabin line. He didn't say anything else until he had jogged to catch up with the two men. "Dude, where have you been? I haven't seen you in the staff room all week. We got plans to make. Tomorrow's our first day off of the season. We have to nail this stuff down."

Blaine tried his best not to look too taken aback. Sam's question was totally normal after all, "Uh...sorry...it's just been a long couple of days," Blaine said, resolutely not looking at Kurt who was still standing beside him. "I've just been trying to catch up on my sleep," the lie came out almost uncomfortably easily.

"Totally feel that," Sam said, sitting down at the picnic table next to the dock and gesturing for Blaine and Kurt to do the same. "All the more reason to plan a kick ass day off tomorrow. You're off tomorrow too, right?" Sam said, addressing Kurt for the first time. The other man just nodded. "Sweet! The more the merrier. So, Ian says he doesn't mind driving the day off van tomorrow so we don't have to worry about a DD. We were thinking that we could go to the diner for a late breakfast and then head to the Creek for a while, kick back with a few beers. The Sun Light girls are headed there tomorrow, too I think."

In any other situation, Blaine would be totally down for a plan like that. The Creek was pretty much the ultimate Fire Light day off location. 'Creek' was actually a bit of a misnomer. In reality it was a portion of the Saco River with wide rocks that were great for sun bathing and hanging out. There was no lifeguard so the counselors could usually hang out without interruption. There were perks to being in a crowd that was almost 100% waterfront lifeguarding certified. Blaine had spent many a day off there, having the time of his life, but this was supposed to be his and Kurt's day, their first real date.

It must have taken Blaine too long to respond because suddenly Kurt was answering for him, "that sounds like a great plan, Sam. We'll be there," Blaine was about to give Kurt an incredulous look, but he wasn't finished. "The only thing is that Blaine already promised to take me early to drop my car off at the shop to get my alignment adjusted, so we'll have to meet up with you later. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, of course," Sam replied. "That's totally fine. Just meet us at the Creek when you're ready."

Sam gave them each a fist bump and told them that he'd see them at breakfast. Once he was out of ear shot Blaine finally spoke up, "have I told you recently that you're a genius."

Kurt rolled his eyes, "probably, but I never get tired of hearing it."

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"Okay, guys," Blaine said slipping into the lake by the canoe dock, "I'm going to stand right here and I want you, to the best of your ability, to paddle to me in a straight line. You can use any of the strokes we've learned so far." Blaine was speaking to his class of ten kids, all rafted up in their canoes, ready for their first challenge of the day. "Let's just go over a few things first. Who is in charge of steering?" There was a chorus of 'the stern' and Blaine smiled proudly, "and then what does the bow do? I want to see hands this time."

Blaine called on an ten year old camper named Alan, wearing a comically large, safari style hat, "I'm in charge of power!" he said, raising his paddle into the air as if it were a bar bell.

"Very good," Blaine said, not even trying to keep the laughter out of his voice. James, who was there as a second on the activity just to lifeguard was laughing up on the dock as well. "Alright, for that correct answer your boat gets to go first." After all five pairs had tried their hand at the exercise, Blaine got them to raft up again. "That was pretty good guys, but there are a few things that I think you could all work on. One I want you to concentrate on keeping your paddle as straight up and down as possible. Next I need you guys to make sure you're getting the entire face into the water. Remember we talked about making nice big swirls in the lake when you..." but before Blaine had the opportunity to answer he heard the dreaded three whistles that they were always treated to in the first week of a session-it was time for a search and rescue drill.

James sprung into action first, "Alright everyone, boats in and then I want you all to move directly to the logs," he said as Blaine dragged the canoes in by the painters, not trusting the new paddlers to get in fast enough. "Don't bother putting away your PFDs. Just go right to the logs. Blaine, you're better trained than I am, you go to the swim dock and I'll get these guys on their way and then meet you there.

Blaine nodded and without another word sprung out of the water and went running to the next dock. Blaine knew it was a drill. Kurt had been hinting that it would be some time today, but for some reason it didn't make it any less stressful. Drills like this always made his stomach twist in fear. If it were real, those three whistles would mean that there was an actual missing kid that was probably sitting unconscious at the bottom of the lake.

Blaine was one of the first people there, since he was only at the canoe dock, and he wasted no time in joining the line of divers that were already there. The concept was simple. Anyone on staff who was a lifeguard would run from whatever they were doing, form a line in the lake and dive over and over again until they found what they were looking for. In the case of the drill, it was a white milk jug full of rocks. After what seemed like an eternity, but what was probably only a few minutes, the whistling stopped. Someone, Inigo it turned out, had found the jug and the counselors that had made it were all dragging themselves out of the water.

"Good job guys," Kurt said, ushering everyone out of the water and gathering them around for a chat. "You did that in five minutes and fourteen seconds. That's pretty good, but next time I want it better. Go get dried off and take the free swim time before lunch to talk to your kids about what just happened."

This was by far the worst part, debriefing with your cabin and explaining that they were practicing for the unthinkable. By the time a search and rescue is called, it basically means that whoever is down there has drowned. They are essentially searching for a body at that point. Blaine had just managed to pull on a dry set of clothes before he saw his kids trooping in one by one.

"Alright, guys, I want you to all come sit on the floor over here and we're going to talk," typically it took a bit more to get them all to do as he asked, but there was no arguing or dilly dallying this time. "So, I know that what you just saw could be a little scary, but I wanted to know if you had any questions."

Blaine spent the next few minutes answering questions and reassuring the youngest boys that it was completely safe to keep swimming in the lake. It was going surprisingly well. Last year's search and rescue had brought on the water works, but these kids seemed to understand that it was only a precaution. Once the questions started to die down, the kids decided to, in true eight year old fashion, change the subject. "The poster on the wall says that tomorrow is your day off," Xander said matter of factly, pointing a tiny finger at the hand-made calendar hanging at the front of the cabin. "What does that mean?"

Blaine ruffled the kid's hair since he was sitting right next to him, "it means that I'm going to spend the day doing some grown up things," he explained. "I'll be back here to sleep at night, but it will be after you guys go to sleep. One of the assistant counselors will do put to bed for you."

"What kinds of adult things?" Ollie asked, with all of the sass that an eight year old boy can muster. "do you have a girlfriend?" he asked, holding out the 'I' in an exaggerated manner.

Blaine coughed slightly, "uh...no, no girlfriend, Ol."

"Fine, then do you have a _boyfriend?" _the boy pressed again.

Blaine's eyes widened and he coughed again, this time louder and more awkwardly, "N-no...no boyfriend either."

"Oh," Ollie said, looking a little disappointed, "cause my big brother has a boyfriend and he always bakes me and my little brother things, so I thought maybe we could all get cookies if you had a boyfriend."

Blaine's eyes softened at that and gave Ollie a little squeeze on the shoulder, "my little brother and me," Blaine corrected automatically. "But that's sounds super cool," he added and Blaine thought that he might have to get his boys some cookies anyway.

**Raft up: when a line of canoes are side by side and connected by holding onto each other's paddles. Its a good way to stay stationary-ish in the water**

**Bow: the front of the boat**

**Stern: the back of the boat**

**Face: the part of the paddle that goes in the water**

**Painter: the piece of rope tied to the end of a canoe, often used for docking **

**PFD: Personal floatation device. All life jackets are PFDs, but not all PFDs are life jackets.**


	11. Chapter 11

**So I was wondering, do any of you all have awesome camp memories that you'd love to see in the story? I'd love to work them in, so let me know! **

**Come say hi! I'm practical-amanda on tumblr.**

"Um...Blaine?" Amy asked tentatively. She had just come back from her own day off and had found Blaine rummaging frantically through the trunk of his car. She had promised Kurt that she was meet him with a bottle of wine and some fresh fruit, but she set her groceries down in favor of trying to help the other man. "Is everything okay? Can I help you find something?"

Blaine stood up so quickly that you accidentally banged his head on the trunk door, spinning around and rubbing his head at the same time, and clutching the item he'd been searching for in his hands, "Hey Amy, how was your day off ?"

Amy gave a small chuckle. She had always been fond of the sweet, slightly awkward Blaine. "It was great. Pretty relaxing," she responded. "I just drove down to the outlet malls with a couple of the other Aunts, and now I'm going to hang out in Kurt's cabin for the rest of the night, maybe have some wine."

Blaine made a conscious effort to avoid any change in his facial expression at the mention of the other man's name. "Sounds fun," he said shuffling his feet and not moving his hand from behind his back.

"So um...what have you got there?" Amy couldn't resist asking, an amused glint in her eye.

"Nothing...I just...you know what getting some of my day off clothes out of the trunk," he said stuffing the garment into his pocket and making his way over to help Amy carry her grocery bags. "I'll help you bring these over to Kurt's."

Amy decided not to press the subject. She had always had a hard time wrapping her head around Blaine. He seemed out going and involved enough and he got on extremely well with pretty much everyone, but it always seemed like there was something lurking just under the surface, like there was something constantly on the tip of his tongue that he couldn't quite get out. "You know, you can join us if you want," Amy said when they came upon Kurt's door. "I can't imagine he'd mind and their's plenty to go around."

"That's very nice of you to offer. Thank you," Blaine said, genuinely. "But, I think I'm going to turn in early tonight." And if Amy didn't know any better she would have sworn their was a yellow and blue bow tie peaking out from Blaine's back pocket as he walked away.

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"Where on earth are you crazies going on your day off tomorrow?" Amy said as she unceremoniously burst into Kurt's cabin and dumped their snacks on the dresser.

Kurt turned away from where he was hanging something up on a hanger, "um...just to the Creek and then to dinner or something. Nothing all that special."

"There's no fancy dress party somewhere in between all that?"

Kurt gave her a confused look, "I'm assuming that in American you mean a costume party?" he said with a laugh in his voice. "And you're answer is no. Do you think I would be planning to wear such a fantastic ensem if it would get lost in a sea of polyester super hero costumes," he asked gesturing to the outfit he'd just hung up. It was a pair of mint green capri length slacks, a white Lacoste shirt, and a kerchief with a repeating skull pattern on it. "Why do you ask?"

Amy quirked an eyebrow at the clothes, but had long since learned not to question Kurt's fashion choices. "No reason, really," she responded. She uncorked the bottle and poured them each a generous glass. "I just saw Blaine frantically searching his trunk for what appeared to be a bow tie."

Kurt felt his lips quirk into a smile and he hoped that his cheeks weren't betraying him by turning that all to familiar pink color, "you can't blame a man for wanting to look stylish."

Amy resisted the urge to roll her eyes, "No..." she said, holding out the 'o' for effect, "I just think it's weird since I've never seen him in anything but shorts and a t-shirt. Plus, if you're just going to the Creek you'll probably be in bathing suits all day."

Kurt shrugged again, "maybe he just felt like getting out of camp clothes for a day. I don't think you can blame him for that."

Amy plopped down on the bed, careful not to spill her beverage. "I wonder what he dresses like at home," Amy said, pulling her iPhone out and logging onto Facebook. "Holy crap," she exclaimed, clicking through his photos. "Check out Brooks Brother's McDapper Pants over here. He's a proper New York dream boat in these pictures. Jeez, the more you know."

Kurt furrowed his eyebrows, unsure if he should put a stop to Amy's Facebook stalking before she accidentally came upon something she shouldn't see. He was just coming to the decision that Blaine wouldn't put anything up that he wasn't comfortable with his camp friends seeing, when she made an observation that was entirely Kurt's fault.

She was looking back and forth, suspiciously between one photograph in particular and Kurt, who was vigorously going over his outfit with a lint roller. "Um...Kurt...are you wearing one of Blaine's sweatshirts?"

Kurt stopped his ministrations with the roller and looked down at his shirt slowly, willing there to be something else covering his torso. How could he have been so careless. It had been a stressful day. There was the search and rescue drill and the meeting with Key Staff about safety procedures. Not to mention, one of the kids in junior had thrown up on the dock and he had spent all of second free swim scrubbing the area clean and sanitizing. Once evening activity was over and all the kids went to bed, Kurt had taken a long, hot shower and practically crawled back to his cabin to put on pajamas.

Blaine had left his high school soccer sweatshirt behind one night after they were done spending time together and after such a long day, it had looked almost unbearably inviting. It was cozy and soft from what was probably years of washing, and best of all, it smelled like Blaine. Kurt knew he shouldn't get too attached, but he couldn't help but love the comforting combination of coffee, cinnamon, and something distinctly Blaine that he doubted had a name.

Meanwhile, Amy was still waiting patiently for an answer. He thought about making up some lie about having a friend that also went to the same all boys prep school and had given him his old team hoodie, but the evidence was too stacked against him. Amy was holding the picture right in her hand. He decided that simplicity was best. Maybe she wouldn't press for details. "Yes, this is his."

"And why, may I ask, is that?" she asked. Her tone was playful, but it did n't make Kurt any less nervous. This wasn't his secret after all and he wasn't doing a very good job of keeping it.

"He was hanging out in here the other night and accidentally left it," he answered quickly, busying himself by getting some of the fruit out of the grocery bags. So far, no lies.

"And, you just decided to wear it because..." Amy had put her phone down and was now lounging back on Kurt's bed and giving him an expectant look.

"Look I know what this looks like, but there's a perfectly logical..."

"You know it's okay to admit you have a crush, Kurt," Amy cut him off. "I won't judge you for it. Everyone gets crushes on unattainable people once in a while. I think it's cute."

Kurt gaped at her. If there was one thing that Kurt wasn't great at doing, it was swallowing his pride, but he also didn't believe in outing. He took a deep steadying breath and looked Amy straight in the eye, "you caught me," he said with a forced smile. "But you know as well as I do that nothing will ever come of it. It's just a silly crush." Kurt soothed his uneasiness with the knowledge that Blaine's secret was safe for one more day.


	12. Chapter 12

**Date part one: woot woot**

**come say hi on tumblr: practical-amanda**

"What the hell, Blaine," came a cranky voice from the other side of the phone. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Yes, it's six AM and I'm officially in the middle of a panic attack," Blaine's eyes had burst open about fifteen minutes earlier and his mind immediately started racing with all of the things that could go wrong today. He had slipped into the staff room to make a panicked phone call to his best friend from back home. "Wes, I don't think I can do this."

"What is 'this,'" he asked, voice thick with irritation. "Because if 'this' is interrupting my beauty rest, then I think you're doing just fine."

"First of all, that's not funny and second of all you know what. My first date with the most beautiful boy on the planet is due to start in a mere two hours and I think I'm going to throw up," Blaine ranted. "Not to mention, that my entire cover will be blown if anyone sees me in my outfit."

"You know I should hang up on your for insulting me, but I'm a good friend so I'm going to ignore that first part," Wes said with a yawn. "Why don't you just wear something else. Doesn't he see you in shorts and a t-shirt every day."

"Wesley!" Blaine yelped, "Have you _seen_ the photos I sent you. This guy is like...the height of chic. I'll look like an idiot if I don't dress appropriately and plus I...I want to let him see a little bit of the real me."

Wes sighed, "Blaine, has it ever occurred to you that it may be time to let a few more people up there see the real you?" Wes was familiar with Blaine's hesitance when it came to revealing his sexuality at camp, but this year it had caused Blaine particular anxiety. "I don't have any personal experience, but it seems like the whole sneaking around thing could get old fast, and if this Kurt guy is half as impressive as you've made him out to be it sounds like he's worth it. And you said the guys have generally been cool about Kurt, so why wouldn't they be cool with you?"

It was Blaine's turn to sigh and he fiddled with a thread on his pajama pants that he was still wearing, "Look, I totally see what you're saying," Blaine said before hesitating for a moment. He knew that Wes would let the silence stretch out for as long as it took to gather his thoughts and Blaine was grateful for the comfort of his best friend. "I'm just...I'm just not ready yet. Maybe in a few weeks, but not now."

Wes made a noise of understanding, "I understand, man and I'm not pressuring you. It's just something to think about," Wes said, sleep finally entirely out of his voice. "So, what you're going to do is put on that outfit that I know you spent a stupid amount of time figuring out and go impress that boy. If anyone says anything about your bow tie, tell them to stuff it."

Blaine snorted at Wes's comment and smiled widely for the first time that morning, "you're right. I hate when that happens. Go back to sleep now. I'll try not to call you so early again."

"Yeah, yeah," Wes replied, "famous last words," and with that, Wes hung up the phone.

0000000000

Blaine pocketed his phone and headed down the stairs of the hall that held the staff room to go get ready. "You're up early. I thought it was your day off," Blaine turned his head towards the office nook where his Dad was sitting at a desk doing some paperwork at the Intermediate unit director's desk.

"What are you doing in this end of camp?" Blaine asked, walking over and sitting down at a chair across from his dad.

"It's Jim's day off and I told him I would come in before senior camp wakes up and finish up some paper work for him," his dad responded. "But, that still doesn't answer my question."

His father leveled him with that familiar 'dad' look over his glasses—the look that says I'm not stupid. I know something's up, I'm just waiting for you to say it. It wasn't a look that Blaine had seen from his dad until relatively recently, but he was getting used to it. "I just had a hard time sleeping this morning is all. I decided to call Wes," Blaine said pulling the arms of his sweatshirt over his hands and looking down."

"It there...is there something wrong?"

Blaine knew that conversations like this didn't come all that easily to his father, but he appreciated that he was trying and figured the least he could do is confide in him. "I...um...I actually have a date this morning. Well, I guess it's a date. I've been sort of seeing this guy since camp started and this is the first time we're actually going out somewhere together."

"With Kurt, right?" Blaine looked up fully for the first time in the conversation with a look of utter shock on his face. "Don't get upset, I don't think anyone else knows, but you're my son and despite anything else, I do know you. Plus, he's the only other gay guy here that I know of, so unless you've bagged a townie..."

"It's Kurt," he said, laughing a little at his dad's use of slang. "He's...he's really great. I mean, we haven't known each other that long, but I feel like he gets me, you know?"

"He's a good kid, responsible," his dad said, leaning back in his chair. "The UDs down here don't have enough good things to say about him, but Blaine...you're a good kid, too. I know it might be easier said than done, but just be yourself and if Kurt can't see how great you are, well then it's his loss. You know what you're grandfather always used to say about Fire Light. If they don't like you here..."

"...They're never gonna like you," Blaine finished for him with a little smile. "I should um...probably go get ready now," his dad gave him a wave as if to dismiss him and Blaine stood up to go, but before he was fully out the door he turned back towards his father, "Dad?" he said, waiting for him to look over, "Thanks. This talk, it meant a lot to me."

0000000000

"Well don't you look handsome!" Kurt greeted when he opened the door to his cabin for Blaine later that morning. "I like those shorts, tres chic!"

Blaine was wearing a pair of tailored, pink sear sucker shorts, a navy blue polo, and a bright yellow bow tie. Ordinarily, he would have positively preened after a compliment like that from a person with a wardrobe like Kurt's, but he was too distracted by what Kurt was wearing, "You look...you look gorgeous, Kurt."

Kurt giggled lightly, "thanks, honey," Kurt replied, letting the term of endearment roll confidently from his lips and taking the compliment with a grace that Blaine could only dream of. "So where are we going this morning?" he asked, closing the door behind him and following Blaine to the staff parking lot.

"It's this little cafe not far from here," Blaine said, opening Kurt's door for him like he's been taught by his grandmother all those years ago. She obviously hadn't anticipated the circumstances quite correctly, but he felt the applied none the less.

Kurt positively swooned. He'd never been out with someone like Blaine before, all manners and dapper etiquette. He thought in that moment that he could get used to being treated like this. Kurt reached over to stroke the back of Blaine's neck once they were seated and on their way, "You know, I love your curls, but I like this look, too," Kurt said, referring to Blaine's neatly gelled hair. "It's very polished, very old movie star. I feel like I'm on a date with Gene Kelly."

Blaine smiled, softly, "I'll take that as a compliment," Blaine responded, smiling wider when Kurt brought his hand down and linked it with Blaine's over the center consul. "So, this is a date then?" Blaine said hopefully,

"Of course it is."

0000000000

"Oh my god, Blaine," Kurt said, not even bothering to swallow fully, "this is the best french toast I've ever had!"

"I know, right! I love this place," he said, beaming with pride that he had picked the right restaurant. "My dad used to always take me here on parent visiting day. I always felt a bit like we were playing hookey."

"So, you're dad has always been at camp with you then?" Kurt asking, popping a piece of strawberry into his mouth.

"Yeah, he took over as senior UD for my grandfather before I was born," Blaine replied, taking a bite from his own plate of waffles. "I was in Pooh Corner from the time I was born until I was old enough for junior camp."

"Um...so it was just...you and your dad?" Kurt asked, trying to be sensitive to all family situations. "Growing up I mean."

Blaine took a second to collect his thoughts, "When I was really young my mom was sort of the classic absentee mother. She was never cruel, but she just...wasn't there," Blaine began. "She spent most of her time on business trips and since my dad is a journalist, he could work from home. I had a babysitter occasionally, but mostly I was raised by my dad. One day, when I was six, my mom went on a business trip and never came back."

Kurt reached over and squeezed Blaine's hand. He knew first hand that there was no point in saying he was sorry or tossing out any other meaningless platitude, and besides, Blaine's hand felt good in his. "So are you and your dad close?" Kurt asked, putting his fork down and giving Blaine his full attention.

Blaine hesitated again. This was where things got more complicated, "I think at this point I can say...yes," Blaine said thinking back to the chat they'd had this morning. "It wasn't always that way, though. I think my dad blamed himself for what happened with mom and looking back, he was probably depressed for much of that time. My big brother made him see a therapist at some point and that helped, but then I came out of the closet and transferred to boarding school and we barely saw each other. My father is not a homophobic man and he's never had a problem with my sexuality, but I guess...I guess he just didn't really know how to relate to me."

Kurt nodded, understandingly. He still remembered a time when he and his father had the same problem, "so then what changed?"

Blaine smiled at that, "It's a funny story actually," Blaine said, reluctantly pulling his hand away so he could resume eating his breakfast. "Remember I said my dad was a journalist? Well, he was covering a talk by this politician who was discussing gay rights in Ohio. Apparently he talked a lot about growing up with his gay son and it resonated with my dad. He ended up buying his book and everything. We've been getting a lot closer since then. I even talked to him about our date this morning." Blaine busied himself with his breakfast so he didn't notice Kurt gaping at him. "What?" he asked when he finally looked up.

"What did you say the politician's name was again?" Kurt asked, still looking at Blaine incredulously.

"Oh um...I didn't. I think it started with a B...Burt something?"

"Burt Hummel," Kurt filled in for him, his expression shifting to amused. "I believe the man you're referring to is my father, congressman to the 4th district of Ohio."

It was Blaine's turn to gape, "no kidding," he said. "I guess I owe your dad a huge thank you then."


	13. Chapter 13

**Date part two: woot woot**

**Yes, before anyone says anything, I'm intimately aware of the fact that Oberlin College does not have a diving team. They don't even have a high diving board, but for the sake of the story, I'm going to need you all to work with me...hopefully it's not suspending your disbelief too far lol.**

**I really wasn't anticipating the date to be in three parts, but it just sort of happened that way. I'm sure you all noticed that I tend to write short chapters, but update frequently so I'll blame it on that. I'm trying to keep the pacing of this story fairly slow. I hope that's okay! Love you all and your reviews make me so excited!**

**come say hi on tumblr: practical-amanda**

"It's about time, Anderson," Sam shouted when he finally saw Blaine and Kurt making their way through the trail and to the river bed. "I was beginning to think you'd never show." Sam was sitting on a rock in the river surrounded by Inigo, Ian, and several Sun Light Girls. "Wow! What kind of mechanic did you go to? Was it in a catalogue?" Sam asked when the two men got closer and he had a better look at their outfits.

Blaine sent Kurt a warning look, begging him with his eyes not to make an indignant comment about how his Vivienne West Wood kerchief was most definitely _not_ from , "we stopped to get brunch afterwards," Blaine said coolly as he spread his blanket out on a dry rock. "And if you're referring to what we're wearing, we both just wanted to take advantage of a day without the uniform."

Sam just shrugged. Blaine assumed that the beer in his hand and the empties he could see in their trash bag might have had something to do with the fact that he didn't press further, but he was grateful none the less, "That's cool, man. I dig the shorts," Ian said, gesturing to Blaine as he hopped out of the water to come and sit next to Kurt. He rubbed himself dry with a towel and slipped his t-shirt back on, "I don't believe we've formally met yet. I'm Ian. I supervise the Outdoor Living Skills and Ecology program."

Ian reached his hand out to shake and Kurt took it with a smile, "Kurt," he said. "I run the waterfront, but I bet you already know that. I can be sort of loud during drills," Kurt added with a chuckle. Ian had sort of shaggy curly hair. It looked a bit like Blaine's hair might have if he let it grow, but it was light brown. He had a scruffy beard and a small hoop dangling from one of his ear lobes. Kurt had seen him around before, but this was the first time he'd actually spoken to him. His attention was drawn suddenly to the college t-shirt he was wearing. "Wait, do you go to Oberlin? That's my alma mater!"

"Whoa, yeah, I thought you looked familiar for some reason. I'm about to be a fourth year," Ian said, suddenly perking up in the conversation. "Were you the college or conservatory?"

"Both, sort of," Kurt responded. "I started out in the conservatory. I thought I wanted to be a vocalist, but I ended up majoring in English instead. It ended up suiting me much better. Most of my friends were from the conservator though, which might be why you and I never seriously crossed paths."

"Yeah, man, I was an Economics major, but I'm thinking of getting an education degree pretty soon. I'm having a little trouble finding a grad program that will let me study Marxian economic theory. I'm not into that neo-liberal crap," Ian casually flicked some lint off of his swim trunks as if he hadn't said anything out of the ordinary.

Kurt just laughed. After half a year in New York City, Kurt had missed the quiet intellectualism of his old campus. His dream had always been to get out of Ohio, but Oberlin ended up being exactly what he needed. It had all the unquestioning open mined-ness of a big city (perhaps even more) combined with the nurturing atmosphere of a small liberal arts school. Not to mention it was a blessing to have a well respected college of arts and sciences to fall back on when it turned out that a music conservatory wasn't really for him. "I miss the place. We'll have to talk shop some day. I don't want to bore this one to death," Kurt said, poking Blaine in the ribs.

"Hey!" Blaine responded playfully, "Who said I was bored? I'm finding it interesting. I never figured you would be the type of person to stay in Ohio. Of course I knew you went there, but I guess I hadn't really thought about it before."

"Oberlin is a far cry from Lima, Mop Top," Kurt said, sticking out his tongue.

"Not to mention," Ian interjected, "actual Ohioans think of Oberlin like Americans think of Guam. They're not totally sure it's actually part of the state."

"Yeah, we're just the weird pseudo-hippies from south of Cleveland," Kurt said with a laugh.

"You, a hippie?" Blaine said incredulously. "I don't know if I buy that. You take more time doing your hair than I do," Blaine said gesturing to his neatly gelled hair.

"It's true," Kurt responded thoughtfully. "To be honest, I only ended up there because they had an extremely well respected conservatory of music and I wanted to be close to my dad. If I had been fully aware of the kind of reputation Oberlin had before I went there, I'm not sure I would have gone through with it, but it ended up being the best decision I've ever made. I haven't always been this way. At this point in my life I feel...confident. I feel relatively self assured. Oberlin really helped me with that. It's that type of place."

Blaine gave Kurt his warmest smile, "I don't know if I can picture you without all of your confident sass."

Kurt laughed, "Oh the sass was always there, but when I was in high school I used it as a shield. Now it's just part of who I am."

"Oh my god!" Ian said suddenly. "I totally remember where I know you from! You were the lead in that production of _Hair_, right?"

Kurt buried his face in his hands and mumbled out a, "yes."

Before he could stop himself Blaine blurted out, "oh god I would have paid to see that!"

There was a beat of silence where Blaine could have sworn his heart was pounding out of his chest, but in reality it was just because Ian was taking a sip from his lemonade, "yeah, it was awesome. I'm not usually that into theater, but my girlfriend at the time wanted to go and I ended up really liking it. You got some set of pipes. I can tell why you got into the conservatory, even if you didn't stay."

Kurt was just about to thank him when the rest of the group came barreling over and surrounded the three men, "I let you be in charge of food, Evans. I hope you didn't disappoint," one of the girls said. Kurt vaguely remembered her from the ill-fated game of spin the bottle. "The last time we sent you to the grocery store you came back with nothing but cheese doodles and beer."

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Sam said, handing out sandwiches that he had picked up form the deli at Hannaford's. "See if I ever get you lunch again."

"None for me, thanks," Blaine said, waving away the sandwich that Sam was handing him. He spoke up again when Sam gave him a confused look, "One, we ate a huge brunch not even an hour ago and two, we're probably going to head out soon."

"Head out?" Sam said, tossing the sandwich to Inigo instead. "How come? You haven't even gotten into the water yet!"

Blaine squirmed slightly uncomfortably on the blanket. He knew he was headed into dangerous territory, but one glance beside him to the beautiful boy, who he was determined to take out on a real date, gave him courage. "Well, on the way here Kurt was saying how much he wanted to see the Portland Museum. So, um...I think we're going to go check it out," Blaine said, scratching the back of his neck nervously. "You know I'm a history nerd," Blaine added with a nervous laugh. "You're all welcome to join us." Blaine said, confident that the answer would be a resounding no.

Sam had a slightly disappointed look on his face, but it was free of any suspicion, "alright, well, just let us know if you want to meet us for dinner later," Sam says taking an oversized bite of his sandwich."

"And we were going to watch a movie at the cottage later tonight," Inigo chimed in. "I'll text you when we're headed there."

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After they had finished lunch and played a few rounds of 'never have I ever' during which Blaine had to lie several times, Kurt and Blaine packed up their blanket and bid their fellow counselors farewell.

Once they were out of ear shot, Sam spoke up, "Is it just me, or has Blaine been acting weird lately. Like, more weird than usual," the question was directed mostly to the Sun Light girls since Inigo and Ian had only just met the man.

One of the girls shrugged, "I don't know. He seems okay, but Jane did say that he hadn't answered any of her calls or texts after the party we had during pre-camp. And, I guess it's weird that he's leaving early. He's not usually one to skip out on a day at the Creek," she leaned back on her elbows. "I know he's studying early childhood education, but last time I talked to him he said he was minoring in art history. It's not surprising he wants to check out the museum."

"I guess," Sam said, not looking all that convinced.

"I know I don't know the guy that well, but I don't think it's that weird," Ian said, popping the lid on another can of Lemonade. "If I had a boyfriend at camp, I'd probably want to spend some alone time with him on my day off, too."

Sam shot up from where he was lounging on his towel, "whoa dude," Sam exclaimed. "Kurt's not his boyfriend. They're just friends. Blaine's not gay."

Ian lifted one of his eyebrows, but just shrugged, "Oh," he answered, "I guess I shouldn't have assumed. They just seemed really close, flirty even, but I was probably just imagining it."

Sam settled back down on his towel, "I've known Blaine since we were both eight. If he were gay, I would know."

Ian hummed his understanding, "I tried sleeping with a man when I was abroad in Argentina. You know, just to see what it was like," Ian said, taking a bite of a plum he had taken out of his bag. "It wasn't my thing, but I guess I can see the appeal."

Inigo let out a snort and a few of the girls started to giggle, "You're something else, dude," Sam said with a chuckle.

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"Are you seriously not going to let me pay for anything this whole day?" Kurt asked, letting out a huff as Blaine batted his hand away from the parking meter. "Honestly, Blaine, it's only a few quarters."

"I promised you a date to remember and that includes sweeping you off your feet with my gentlemanly charm," Blaine said, giving a little mock bow after he slipped the last coins into the meter. "You can pay on our next date. How about that?" Blaine said with a little wink.

"I'll hold you to that, Anderson," Kurt said as he took Blaine's arm to walk into the museum. Both men were internally thrilled at the promise of another day spent together.


	14. Chapter 14

**Date part three: woot woot**

**This is pretty much just a fluffy little tag on to let you all know that I'm still alive. We'll pick back up with the drama soon, but I have a house full of foreign visitors and it's been impossible to find a good chunk of time to write. **

**Love you all. I post previews and deleted scenes on my tumblr, practical-amanda.**

"I thought this was supposed to be your day off?" Kurt whispered as Blaine pulled him down the cabin line by his arm.

"I know, but if it's at all possible, I really like to tuck my kids in every night," Blaine replied. "I think it's good for continuity. I mean, if I had older kids it would be a different story, but not seeing their counselor every day can be hard on the eight year olds. I mean, I warned them yesterday that an AC would be tucking them in, but can you just imagine their faces when it's actually me?"

Kurt grinned and gave Blaine an adoring look without even thinking about it, "that's really sweet, Blaine," Kurt complimented. "But, I still don't understand why you're bringing me with you."

"They love it when I sing them to sleep, but they'd love it even better with a special guest star," Blaine said tugging Kurt the rest of the way to his cabin. "Come on, I know you like to sing. Just do one duet with me and then I promise we can go back to your room and talk about making over Nancy Grace."

Kurt gave him a wry smile just as they were about to walk in, "I can think of better things we can do with our time, but fine, you had me at duet. What are we going to sing?"

"Just follow my lead," Blaine whispered as he opened the door to his cabin. There was an assistant counselor in there trying to corral the kids into their pajamas. "We got it from here Caleb. Thanks a lot for taking over."

"Blaine!" came a chorus of six campers in various stages of being ready for bed.

"You're back!" said Ale, who decided to practically collide with his counselor for a hug. Ollie, not to be left out, clung onto his other side, while the other four boys gathered around. "Are you going to sing to us?"

"Of course I am," Blaine said, finally managing to disperse the crowd so they could finish getting ready and get his guitar. "I even brought a special guest to sing with me."

The boys seemed to notice Kurt standing in the doorway for the first time, "Hey cabin one," Kurt said moving to perch himself on the dresser further into the cabin.

"Alright, guys," Blaine said as he walked out of his counselor area in a pair of sweats and a comfortable looking t-shirt, his guitar was slung over his back, "the faster you get into bed the faster we can start singing." Six boys started scrambling to go faster. Blaine chuckled at how easy it was to motivate kids some times. "You ready Uncle Kurt?" Blaine said with an exaggerated wink.

Kurt rolled his eyes, but nodded and Blaine played the opening to a familiar tune, "you be Ella. I'll be Louis."

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"I can't believe you remembered," Kurt said as they walked back down the cabin line towards Kurt's cabin. "I told you that was my favorite album like two days after we met."

Blaine just shrugged, "I remember everything you tell me. Especially something as important as your favorite album. That's key information."

The pair had just finished an acoustic cover of 'Tenderly' from _Ella and Louis_ and in Kurt's humble opinion, it had been perfect, "My mom used to put that album on in the living room and we'd waltz around. She used to call it our 'boogie sessions.'"

Blaine laughed and followed closely behind Kurt as they walked into the cabin, "Well, I think I speak for all of cabin one when I say that you're welcome at put to bed any time," Kurt disappeared for a few minutes to the bathroom and when he returned he was dressed similarly to Blaine in a pair of flannel pajama pants and the same t-shirt Amy had caught him wearing the day before. "Hmmm...I had wondered wear this t-shirt had gone," Blaine said, playfully pulling Kurt onto his lap and squeezing him around the middle. "You should keep it. It looks much better on you."

Kurt just hummed his agreement and laid his head on Blaine's shoulder, burying his nose in Blaine's neck and allowing himself to fully relax into the other man's arms, "today was amazing, Blaine. I can't thank you enough," Kurt mumbled into Blaine's ear. "Sorry I'm getting so sleepy. You know how tiring this job can be. I had no idea what it would be like to need a day off this badly. I don't know if I can talk about makeovers tonight. I'm just so tired"

"Why don't you just get into bed and I'll stay here until you fall asleep," Blaine suggested as he pulled back the covers and ushered Kurt under them. "If you promise to sing with me again, I might even be persuaded to rub your back."

Kurt grinned dopily up at Blaine and rolled over onto his stomach, "I'll sing with you any time you like."


	15. Chapter 15

**I want to disclaim that everything about Cooper in this ACTUALLY HAPPENED. Cooper is very much real and I had a serious panic attack when I met him for the first time and no one understood why. Please enjoy! **

**Love you all. I post previews and deleted scenes on my tumblr, practical-amanda.**

"Hey, boy," Blaine said, leaning over to pet Cooper, the head of the trip leader's dog. He was four year old Husky and one of the most well trained dogs that Blaine had ever encountered. "Are you in charge of him while Chris is on the Umbagog?" Blaine's asked his dad, who who had just walked out of his cabin where Blaine was meeting him to walk up to lunch.

"Yeah," he responded, "it's always nice to have this guy around," Cooper yipped a little and sat on his hind legs waiting patiently for the head rub that he knew was coming. "He's much better behaved than the human Cooper."

Blaine laughed at the all too true joke about his big brother, "maybe we should propose some sort of trade."

"Nah, I wouldn't do that to Chris," Blaine's Dad patted Cooper one final time and the two made there way up to the dining hall. "So, how was your big day off the other day?"

Blaine felt himself breaking into a smile, "I think it went really well. We met up with some of the guys at the Creek for a bit, but then we went to the museum and had dinner at that sushi place we found a few years back," Blaine said. "I...I really like him, Dad."

His dad hummed appreciatively and held the door open so they could both walk in and get in line for their food, "Sounds like a pretty good day to me. Maybe the three of us could take a lunch out together. I'd love to get to know him a little more."

"I'd really like that, but I'm just not sure...I'm not sure we're there yet. I'll let you know," Blaine replied, helping himself to a heaping portion of lasagna. "But it really means a lot to me, you know...that you want to get to know him."

"Hey, someone needs to make sure he's good enough to date an Anderson," his Dad said cheekily. "Let's ge that table at the back." The two men headed towards the drink counter and then slid in across from each other at one of the smaller staff tables. "What do your old friends think of all this? I know you never really came out at camp, but surely they're going to notice something's up eventually, if they haven't already."

Blaine froze with a bite of salad half way to his mouth, "you really think they're going to figure it out?" he asked, dropping his fork back down to the plate and training his eyes down to his lap.

His dad chewed thoughtfully, "I don't know what to tell you, kid," he began, "I'm not saying they're going to guess right away, but at some point they're going to start asking questions, especially Sam. You two have been partners in crime every summer for over ten years now. He's going to notice that you're spending most of your time with someone else."

"I'm just...not sure if I'm ready yet," Blaine responded, as he started to eat again. "What if they don't take it well?"

Blaine's father sighed, "I know this isn't what you want to hear, but if they can't accept the fact that you're gay, are they really friends that are worth keeping?" Blaine looked up at his dad. The look on his face said that he knew his father was right. "And besides, I think Sam might be more upset about you lying to him than you being gay."

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"Hey, man, how's it going?" Blaine looked up to see Ian walking down the canoe dock towards him. "Can I give you a hand?"

Blaine was spending his Sunday afternoon rest hour making an inventory list of all the paddles that the camp owned and the sizes that they needed more of. It was a dull task, but it was long overdue and he was grateful for company, "that would be awesome actually," Blaine replied. "Just grab that extra tape measure over there and I'll show you what to do."

Blaine quickly explained the simple procedure and the two got to work, "So, as much as I enjoy measuring things, I did have an ulterior motive for coming down here," Ian said, placing the one he was working on in the correct pile. "I need to get the Junior Maine Woodsman kids down here so that I can do their canoeing lesson. We leave for testing camp pretty soon and we'll probably need at least two days of lessons before I'll feel comfortable evaluating them."

"Well, you did the ACA certification, right?" Blaine asked and Ian nodded in confirmation. "Alright cool so you don't need me to help with the lesson. You can come any time. We typically take about five canoes out a period so you guys can use the other five whenever you want."

"Thanks," Ian replied, "We'll probably be here on Monday and Tuesday. That should leave us enough time. You're a lot more laid back than Kurt. He nearly had a panic attack when we showed up to do the waterfront safety portion the other day," Ian chuckled at the memory. "I guess we should have asked before hand."

Blaine felt his face splitting into a huge smile, "He's something else," he said simply. "He works hard though...to keep that area safe. I may be shunned for saying this, but he's way better than the last guy. He was a bit of a disaster actually."

Ian glanced over at Blaine and raised an eyebrow at what he saw, "do you always get that dopey look on your face when you talk about water safety or is it just Kurt?"

Blaine froze with his tape measure stretched half way down the paddle. He hadn't disclosed his sexuality to anyone at camp, but he's never outright lied about it either, "I...um..."

"Sorry man, I really didn't mean to put you on the spot," Ian cut in, looking contrite. "I was only teasing. I didn't mean to imply that you were..."

"You're right," Blaine said, his mouth moving independently of his brain, a habit that Blaine had tried to curb unsuccessfully, practically since he learned to talk, but it was too late now. The truth was finally going to come out to a least one person besides Kurt. "I'm...I'm gay...and I'm out and I'm proud and everything just...not so much at camp. It hasn't really been a big deal in the past, but this year I met Kurt and he...well he changed everything."

Ian had a thoughtful expression on his face. He didn't look surprised, just like he was trying to figure out exactly what to say next, "hey, it's your life. And only you can decide if and when you come out to these people," Ian said, going back to the task at hand. "I guess I just can't imagine keeping something like that a secret. You two seem like you really dig each other. Whenever I like someone that much I always feel like shouting it from the roof tops. Maybe that's just me."

Blaine sighed, "It's not just you," he said. "Actually it's torture. I've been thinking that maybe it's time for me to put an end to all the secrets, but I just don't know if I'm ready."

"I don't really know what to tell you, dude. I can't really relate to what your going through," Ian said, shrugging his shoulders. "But there is one person that sort of does. Why don't you try talking to Kurt about all of this?"

That afternoon, Blaine was armed with a new determination. If he really wanted to make something of his relationship with Kurt, he was going to have to come clean.

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"So, how goes the sordid love affair?" Camp was over for the day and Kurt had called Rachel for a much needed dose of his best girlfriend.

Kurt rolled his eyes dramatically even though he knew Rachel couldn't see him, "secret affair, Rachel; there's nothing sordid about it," Kurt replied. "And anyway who said anything about love?"

"You didn't have to say it, Kurt. I know you," Rachel said emphatically. "The way you talk about him is sappier than I think I've ever heard you talk about anyone."

"Yes, Rachel, you know me, but I also know you and I know that you're a sucker for a love story and you'll do anything to find one, even if it's mostly fabricated," Kurt said, moving to fiddle with some of his cosmetics on the dresser. "Blaine's great and we're having fun, but it's just a summer fling. Don't make something out of it that it isn't. I mean we're only known each other for three weeks!"

"So you admit it's only mostly fabricated then?" Rachel replied, completely ignoring most of what Kurt said.

"Rachel..." Kurt began in a warning tone.

"No, come on, Kurt," Rachel admonished, "you said he was going to be living in Brooklyn. Don't be an idiot. You could have something great with this guy."

"Just because he's going to be in the same area doesn't mean..."

"I'm not going to let you do what you always do," Rachel cut him of. "Remember when you met that actor guy that you'd been pining after for months at a dinner party and you were sitting next to him and instead of getting his number you spent the whole night chatting with the girl on the other side of you?"

"Hey, Sarah and I are good friends now," Kurt defended.

Rachel sighed, "you're missing the point, Hon. I don't know if it's because you're scared or too picky or what, but you have this habit of shutting yourself off to love and the way you talk about Blaine makes me think that he may be the one to break you of that habit."

Kurt was silent. He didn't know what to say. He also didn't know that Blaine was standing outside the door of his cabin clutching two cooling mugs of hot chocolate that he had stolen from the kitchen. He had heard the whole conversation. Well, at least Kurt's side of things and there was a single tear sliding down his cheek.

**PLEASE DON'T HATE ME! I warned you the drama was coming.**


	16. Chapter 16

** has caused me no small amount of angst over the last 12 hours and I really hope that you guys are able to puzzle out how to read this story properly, but basically—what you all received last night was chapter 17 labeled as chapter 16. THIS is chapter sixteen and hopefully it will make chapter 17 make a lot more sense. I realize that you all might not even see this so I'll post another note when we reach chapter 18. BLARGH I'M SO SORRY.**

"I'm an idiot, Wes," Blaine said into his phone. After the horrible, humiliating moments of sitting outside of Kurt's cabin, he had sought the comfort of his best friend.

"Not that I don't agree with you, but I need to know. Are we foregoing the more traditional phone greetings for good or is it just a one time thing?" Maybe comfort was too strong of a word.

"Wes, come on this is serious," Blaine practically whined. "I made the whole thing up in my head. I feel like shit."

Wes must have heard the slight crack in Blaine's voice because he abandoned his previously teasing tone, "Blaine, what's wrong?"

Blaine then proceeded to tell Wes everything, from the wonderful date he and Kurt had shared, to the conversation he had with Ian, to the words he'd heard through the door only ten minutes before, "How could I have misread everything so thoroughly?" Blaine exclaimed, "It's like, forget being on the same page. We weren't even on the same planet."

"Maybe it's not what you think," Wes tried. "You didn't hear the other side of the conversation and you know as well as I do that people talk to their friends about relationships in ways that don't always reflect how they'd act in the actual relationship. Don't you remember that girl that David was hooking up with for six months who we later found out had formally met his parents?"

"I don't think it's like that, Wes," Blaine sighed dejectedly. "He couldn't have been any clearer. He said it was just a summer fling, destined to be over by September."

Wes was quiet for a few minutes, "Well then...well then maybe you need to give him a dose of his own medicine," Wes said finally. "Don't forget where you are, Blaine. You're at a summer camp for pete's sake. If he's just trying to have fun then maybe that's what you should do."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, think about all of the things you used to do before you started this whole crazy, secret relationship," Wes suggested. "Think about all of the reasons you loved camp in the first place. Maybe it's time for you to be a little selfish for a change. Go hang out with your friends. Have some fun. Don't worry about Kurt, at least for tonight. I think in the morning you'll see that things have a way of working themselves out. Bros before hoes, right?"

Blaine couldn't help but chuckle at that, "I think you're forgetting that Kurt's a bro, too."

"You know what I mean, dummy," Wes said affectionately. "Why don't you get some snacks, some stupid movies, maybe even a few beers and kick back for a while. It's the summer time. Romance can wait."

Blaine nodded even though he knew that Wes couldn't see him, "Thanks, Wes," Blaine said. "I think that was exactly what I needed to hear."


	17. Chapter 17

**Love you all. I post previews and deleted scenes on my tumblr, practical-amanda.**

Amy let out a long satisfied sigh, "I just love movies like that," she said, closing her lap top and laying back down next to Kurt on his bed. "I don't care it it's cliché. It just makes me happy."

Kurt had finished his phone call with Rachel, and Amy had showed up begging for a movie night. They had just finished _27 Dresses_, but Kurt had barely paid attention to a single word, "I don't know," he responded. "I mean it's sweet and all, but do you really think that would ever happen in real life? I used to be a hopeless romantic. It was probably from watching too many musicals, but I just can't muster that kind of hope anymore. Love, it's just a fairytale."

"Well, of course it is," Amy said, "That movie—movies like it, they're complete fairy tales, but that doesn't mean there's no such thing as love. My boyfriend and I have been together for six year now and we're no fairytale, but we love each other and that's good enough," Amy continued, reaching to the bedside table to pluck a Swedish Fish from the bag. "It's about finding someone that you want to hang out with, someone who makes you happy significantly more frequently than they make you sad. You're never going to find someone who's perfect or even perfect for you; you have to find someone who's inevitable flaws you can tolerate," Amy looked over with a mischievous look on her face. "A hot bod doesn't hurt either."

Kurt threw his head back and laughed out lout, "No, you're most certainly right about that last part," he said. "I think you're probably right about the first part, too," Kurt paused to gather his thoughts. "My best friend from home, I was just on the phone with her...I love her to death, but sometimes I think her head is stuck in the clouds. She's always been a dreamer. I always felt like I had to be the cynical, overly pragmatic one when it came to relationships, you know, to balance each other out. I never really thought about it the way you put it."

"Were you guys talking about anything specific?" Amy said, prodding for information. "Or any_one_ specific I should say."

Kurt looked down with a guilty look, "honestly, the answer is yes," Kurt said, "but it's not something I can share with you right now. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. You don't have to tell me, but seriously, don't be afraid to take a chance. You might be surprised by the outcome."

"Honestly, it's not getting hurt that I'm afraid of," Kurt replied. "I've dealt with that plenty of times. I'm really just afraid of being wrong. I know that sounds silly."

"Wrong about what?" Amy asked, looking a little confused.

"It's just, you get into a relationship and at the start you're like, 'well this seems just about perfect,' and you tell all of your friends, and you get all sappy, and you put it up on your Facebook. And then, nine times out of ten you break up," Kurt explained. "You're forced to back track. You have to admit to everyone that you were foolish enough to think that you had found the one."

"Maybe," Amy said, squeezing Kurt's hand in her own, "or maybe you'll be proving to everyone how brave you are for giving your heart away in the first place."

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"Let's get hammered," Blaine said, dropping a thirty rack of PBR on the table in front of where Sam and Inigo were playing chess.

"Um...what?" Sam asked, giving Blaine a look like he had three heads.

"Sweet, PBR!" Ian said, walking into the staff room and sitting down in the arm chair opposite of Inigo and Sam. "What's the occasion?" he asked, throwing a few bucks onto the table and helping himself.

"Manic Mike over hear has decided that 9:00 PM on a Sunday night is the ideal time to have a rager in the staff room," Sam answered. "I assume we're going to have to stay tuned to find out why he's so intent on punishing his liver at this particular juncture."

Blaine gave him a look that was just short of scathing and plopped down in the other chair, cracking a beer of his own, "I didn't think I needed a reason to drink with my bros, Evans," Blaine said. "I didn't get to spend my day off with you, for the most part and I want to hang."

"Yeah, and whose fault is that?" Sam asked, but there was no venom in the question. Blaine shrugged and continued to gulp down his drink. Sam rolled his eyes and pulled out two cans, handing one off to Inigo. "So where is your new bestie? Don't tell me he's sick of you already."

"Don't know. Don't care," Blaine said chugging down the rest of his beer and grabbing another one."

Ian gave Blaine an alarmed, knowing look, "Whoa, slow down tiger," Ian said, not sure what to do. "Maybe you should pace yourself a bit. Let the rest of us catch up."

"Blaine is everything okay?" Sam asked, suddenly concerned when he noticed Blaine quickly making his way through the second drink. "You're never the one to suggest drinking. You're acting really weird, dude."

"Everything is friggin' fantastic," Blaine said, taking another giant gulp. "I've never been better," he said slamming his second empty down onto the table, "damn I should have gotten something stronger."

"Should we...do something?" Inigo asked in a whisper, as if Blaine was some sort of skittish animal.

"I think I know what to do, but I have to go get someone," Ian said, sighing and hoping that he was doing the right thing. "You guys just keep an eye on him until I get back."

**I thought a lot about how Blaine might react to the situation. We've seen Blaine get upset a few times on the show and it seems to manifest itself in anger or that terrible, heartbreaking kicked puppy look. I went for a bit of both this go round. My vision is that he feels mad and hurt that he was on the brink of taking a huge risk for someone who he doesn't feel like is willing to do the same. I think drinking with the guys is his misguided way to recapture his camp life before meeting Kurt, even though he's taking it way too far.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Once again, I'm sorry for all the glitches earlier. Here have a chapter.**

**PS I'm so glad you all love Ian so much because he's based on a very real person who is one of my very closest friends. **

**Love you all. I post previews and deleted scenes on my tumblr, practical-amanda.**

"What the hell is going on here?" Kurt came bursting into the staff room, Ian right at his heals. "Ian just came running into my cabin shouting about how you'd gone off the deep end." Kurt finally rounded on Blaine, who was half way through his third beer in less than a half hour. "Blaine, are you listening to me?"

"What do you want, Kurt," Blaine said. He wasn't drunk. He had only had two and a half beers, but he had drank enough to cause him not to think twice about having it out with Kurt in the middle of the staff room. It was relatively empty apart from their immediate group, but there were a few ACs in the back by the TV who had turned their attention to the live show instead. "I'm just trying to hang out with my friends."

"Okay, that's fine, but it doesn't explain why you're three beers deep when you have work tomorrow," Kurt said, trying to keep his voice down. He had never seen this side of Blaine before. He was hurt and a little angry, but most of all he was confused. "What brought this on? You're usually so level headed. You have to take care of kids tomorrow, hangover or not."

"Oh, like you care," Blaine practically spat.

"Blaine, what are you talking about?" Kurt exclaimed, raising his voice slightly. "For god sakes, of course I care."

"Maybe for now you do, but what about after camp?" Blaine said, slamming his empty can down and rounding on Kurt. "It'll all just be a distant memory, our entire...friendship," Blaine was feeling bold, but not that bold.

"Blaine," Kurt cried, sounding even more frantic than before, "I don't know what's going on, but I really need you to calm down and explain it to me. Maybe we should..."

"There's nothing to explain, Kurt. I heard you," Blaine said, folding his arms petulantly after gesturing for Kurt to go on.

"Blaine I don't think you want to do this here," Kurt said, as calmly as he could. "I think we should go outside," Kurt added, sending a sideways glance to the small audience that wasn't doing anything to hide the fact that they were listening to the entire thing unfold.

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"Alright, you wanted to talk?" Blaine asked in a surly tone, the two men had taken their conversation down onto the dock to avoid being overheard, "then talk."

"Why are you so pissed off?" Kurt asked, trying not to raise his voice. "Everything was fine all week and now you're acting crazy."

"Crazy?" Blaine asked, crossing his ams again and letting out a humorless laugh. "Maybe you just don't know me as well as you think you do."

"Blaine-" Kurt began, voice laced with hurt, "Blaine, I want to fix this, but god I can't do anything about it unless you tell me what the problem is. You're an amazing person. Sweet, kind hearted, funny, smart, and I like you, maybe more than I've liked anyone before, but you're scaring me."

"Now who's acting crazy?" Blaine asked, seemingly unfazed by Kurt's admission. "You're still going to insist on leading me on. Kurt, I heard you. Three hours ago, I came to your cabin with hot chocolate so I could talk to you about finally coming out to my friends here, and when I got there, I heard you talking on the phone."

"Blaine, no," Kurt said panic rising in his voice, "what you heard it was just..."

"I'm not an idiot, Kurt," Blaine said, cutting Kurt off. "I know what I heard...god, I was going to risk everything for you!" Blaine said, starting to shout.

"Risk everything?" Kurt exclaimed, raising his voice to match Blaine's, "You're delusional, Blaine. You're gay not an FBI agent. You're not hiding some sort of government information. You just like men...up until very recently I thought you liked me. If that's so shameful to you then..."

"Shameful to me?" Blaine spat back. "Are you kidding me? 'it's just a summer fling. Don't make something out of it that it isn't. I mean we're only known each other for three weeks,'" Blaine quoted back to him, voice full of derision. They were the words that had been playing over and over again in his head all night.

"What do you want me to say to you?" Kurt said, still not calmed down. "I'm sorry you had to hear that Blaine, but you didn't hear the whole conversation and you certainly don't know what's going on in my head."

"I don't know because you won't talk about it!" Blaine yelled back, "It's like pulling teeth trying to get you to open up about anything, the idea of having an actually serious talk about what's going on between us is laughable."

Kurt was about to bite back, but it turned out that they weren't as alone as they thought, "Anderson! Hummel!" the stern voice of the their UD was suddenly calling down the dock, "you two have exactly five minutes to get out of my sight and back to your respective cabins, or I won't be nice enough to calm down over night before thinking of your punishment for having a shouting match two hours after taps in the middle of camp."

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"Yelling while the kids are sleeping, hanging out on the docks after dark—after you'd been drinking might I add," Kurt and Blaine were sitting across from the UD in his office feeling properly ashamed of their behavior the night before. "I mean, what were you two thinking? You're some of my best staff members. I really expected better from you two."

"We're sorry, Sir," Blaine said quietly. "And with all due respect, Kurt wasn't drinking. It was just me," Blaine may have still been mad, but he couldn't let Kurt take the fall for something he didn't do.

Kurt turned and gave him a grateful look, "And I really should have known better about letting him on the dock. I'm the waterfront director. It was my fault."

The older man sighed, "that's all very chivalrous of you both, but the fact remains that I can't let this go unpunished. I mean, what were you even fighting over in the first place?"

Kurt glanced over at Blaine who was staring resolutely down at his shoes, "It was nothing. It was stupid. It won't happen again," he mumbled.

"Alright," their UD responded, sitting down in his office chair, "look you guys are good kids. You've never given me any trouble before, so I'm not going to take this to the directors. You're on dock scrubbing duty this afternoon while the kids are out on the hiking trip, but if either of you steps a toe out of line again, I can't be this nice."

"Yes, sir," they both chorused back.

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Later that day the two men were side by side on the dock, scrubbing in total silence. They hadn't talked since the meeting in the office, but they hadn't yelled at each other either which Kurt was counting as a win, so he decided to finally break the silence, "Blaine, I...I'm sorry. I'm really sorry," Kurt took the other man's silence as his cue to keep going. "I really didn't mean to hurt you and I never should have said that stuff about you coming out of the closet. You should take as long as you need. I was just...confused and scared and honestly...I've had hook ups and a few dates before, but I've never really be anyone's...boyfriend," Blaine finally stopped his scrubbing and looked at Kurt. "What I said about us...it was rude, insensitive, and even if I didn't know you were listening I shouldn't have said it. I went into this thing assuming it would just be some fling and I never stopped to question it."

"And, now you feel differently?" Blaine asked, speaking for the first time and daring to sound hopeful.

"A lot about the way I feel has been different since I met you," Kurt said simply. "I didn't really get what it was, but seeing you hurting yesterday...it made me want to do everything in my power to make sure you never had that look on your face again, but then we started fighting and it got so out of hand..."

"I'm sorry, too," Blaine said suddenly. "I acted without thinking and I should have talked to you instead of flying off the handle from a conversation I heard while eaves dropping. Just, promise me that at some point we can sit down and actually figure out what we are to each other. I don't want this to just be for the summer."

"I...I don't want that either," Kurt finally said after a pause that was probably only a few seconds, but to Blaine it seemed like an eternity. "God, look at us. We're a mess. I'm sweaty, I barely slept last night, and I'm covered in lake filth," Kurt brought his hand up to his cheek and felt wetness there, "and great, now I'm crying."

Blaine suddenly got a mischievous glint in his eye, "well I can think of one way to make you a little cleaner."

"You wouldn't dare," Kurt said, holding his arms out in defense and slowly backing away from Blaine, but it was to late. In one swift motion the two were crashing into the water and coming up sputtering. "I'm going to kill you, Anderson!" Kurt shouted playfully, doggie-paddling over and splashing the other man.

"Hmmm...only if you kiss me first," Blaine said, pulling Kurt close and planting a slow languid kiss on his mouth. The whole camp was out on a trip. Scrubbing could wait and Kurt and Blaine felt untitled to at least one (or maybe more) make up kiss. What they hadn't anticipated was that someone might be hanging around on their day off and what they definitely hadn't anticipated was Tim watching the entire scene unfold from land.


	19. Chapter 19

**So I'm definitely going to post the next part later today, but I have a job interview this afternoon and I wanted to give you guys a little snippet before hand. Also at the end of this chapter you will find some info about my next story/a request for a beta.**

**Love you all. I post previews and deleted scenes on my tumblr, practical-amanda.**

"So, everything's okay now?" Sam asked, as Blaine slid in across from him at the breakfast table. "You don't have to um...tell me exactly what happened, but things got sort of weird the other night," Sam didn't want to admit it, but he had been avoiding Blaine since that Sunday. This was the first time he'd come face to face with the other man since the incident.

"Yeah, everything's great. I'm sorry you had to see that," Blaine said a little sheepishly. "It wasn't one of my finer moments."

"Hey, you're the one that saw me blow chunks into the lake at the end of camp party two years ago. We've all done more than our fair share of embarrassing things in front of each other," Sam replied, taking a huge bite of eggs. "We're camp brothers. That's what it's all about," he added reaching out for a fist bump which Blaine returned.

"That means a lot to me," Blaine said, gut twisting in guilt as he was once again reminded of the massive secret he'd been hiding for years at this point. "Which is why I think it's time that we sit and talk—literally, whenever is convenient for you. There's some stuff I really need to tell you...nothing bad!" Blaine added quickly when he saw Sam's concerned face.

"Jeez man, you scared me. I thought you were going to tell me about some terminal illness or..."

But that was as far as Sam got because he was cut off by Tim loudly slamming his tray down on the table. "You're late," Blaine said, mustering all of the venom he could with just two words.

"Slept in," he said, seemingly unconcerned at interrupting the two other counselors. "I'm surprised to see you here this morning, Anderson. Did you even make it back to your own cabin last night?"

Blaine froze, unsure what Tim was talking about, but getting the feeling that it couldn't be good, "um...of course I did, Tim," Blaine responded. "That's where my bed is and that's where my kids are. I can't think of anywhere else I would possibly be."

"Really?" Tim said, a horrible sneer in his voice, "because I could have sworn I saw you sneaking into Hummel's cabin last night."

"I wasn't sneaking," Blaine said, doing his best to keep his composure. "I put my kids to bed and then we went to watch a movie. I don't really see a problem."

"What are you playing at, dude?" Sam asked, speaking up for the first time. "You kind of interrupted a private conversation."

"I'm not playing at anything," he responded with a mock innocence. "I was just hoping to congratulate Blaine on being one half of our first camp couple of the season," Blaine gave him a disbelieving look and was preparing to deny the all too true comment, but Tim wasn't done. "I mean, that was you and Kurt I saw making out in the lake yesterday, right?"

**Would anyone be interested in being a beta for my next fic? I already have some ideas and scenes written and I'd like to start off with someone early in the process.**

**The story was inspired by _Sleepwalk With Me_, but it's not based on it. The story is entirely my own. Basically, it will follow Blaine in his quest to be a stand up comedian. It will mostly take place at a comedy club/bar where…you guessed it…Kurt is the bar tender. **

**I'd love to discuss it with anyone more fully, if you think you are interested, but aren't sure. I don't know if you have intuited this about me from my Tumblr or author's notes, but I'm not an especially intense person, so really if you want to have fun and goof around on a project this is totally the one for you.**

**I typically don't work with a beta, but for reasons I don't feel like boring you with right now, I think this project will need one.**

**Thanks! Love you all!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Not sure if this really counts as next day service, but I did my best!**

**Love you all. I post previews and deleted scenes on my tumblr, practical-amanda.**

Blaine had thought about the moment when he would finally come out to Sam for years. He had played it over and over again in his head a million and one different ways, but this was definitely not one of them. There were several emotions that Blaine thought he should be feeling: anger, hurt, fear, etc., but what he couldn't have anticipated was the overwhelming feeling of numbness that over took him—a feeling that his camp life was about to change forever.

When he thought about it later on, he realized that nothing about the background of the scene had changed. The kids were still yammering away, loud as ever, but to Blaine, in that moment, all he could here was the rush of blood to his ears as a carefully crafted lie by omission came crashing down.

After what seemed like an eternity, at least to Blaine, he mustered up the courage to respond, "We had a fight and then we made up. We shared a kiss, but I would never make out in the middle of the day on camp property. I value my job," Blaine chanced a glance at Sam for the first time and the other man was sitting and staring at him, an unreadable expression on his face. "Um...maybe we don't need to talk privately after all. Cat's sort of out of the bag."

Sam, still with the same look on his face started clearing his tray, "leaving so soon?" Tim asked, casually taking a bite of his breakfast as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"Blaine, I have first free swim off today," Sam said curtly, but no unkindly. "I want you to meet me at TP point. I think maybe we still have some things to talk about, but for now...I have to go," and without another word Sam was walking purposely towards the dish room.

"That was really low," Blaine said, refusing to meet Tim's eye. "I knew you were an ass hole, but I didn't know you would take it that far. Am I to assume that the rest of the staff will know before the end of breakfast? Is that your big plan—outing me to the whole camp?"

"Look, Anderson," Tim said, slamming his fork down on the table, "I come to camp to be around men, not a bunch of lady boys. It was bad enough when your new butt buddy came traipsing in this summer. I'm not going to deal with you becoming one of them, too. If it's going to take a public outing to get you to realize that he's poisoned your mind, then that's what I'm going to do."

Blaine laughed humorously, "Is that what you think—that Kurt 'turned' me?" Blaine asked incredulously. "Well I have news for you, I've been out of the closet to people at home since I was fifteen. My dad knew even before that. Yeah, CIT summer when we were all sharing a tent on the sixteen day wilderness trip? Bet you didn't know that you were sleeping next to the scary gay boy," Blaine said, wiggling his fingers in a mock scary gesture and doing everything in his power not to make a scene. "Looks like I didn't infect you. Too bad."

"You better watch your mouth," Tim said, not taking any similar precautions to prevent attention from being drawn their way. Luckily the waffle stix were proving a good enough distraction for the kids and none of them had noticed the fight that was brewing at the staff table.

"I'd rather just get the hell away from you," Blaine said, grabbing his tray and stalking back towards the dish room, almost relieved that his anger provided a temporary distraction from the fear and hurt that was swirling around in the pit of his stomach.

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"Thank you, Sir, for meeting with me on such short notice," Kurt said, folding his hands in his lap and trying not to appear too nervous. "I know it's not conventional for me to be bringing this to another unit's director, but I thought given the circumstances, it might be a good idea for me to come to you first."

"It's not a problem, Kurt, but if you don't mind me asking, before we go any further. Who's watching the dock during free swim?"

"I put Amy in charge, Sir. She's who's in charge on my days off," Kurt replied.

"And none of this 'sir' business. This is camp, kid. You can call me Steve like everyone else," Mr. Anderson, Steve Kurt would have to keep reminding himself, insisted.

"Steve, then," Kurt agreed, "I...something happened this morning...down in Junior/Intermediate camp and, well, I was going through the staff handbook and it seems like it might be a case of sexual harassment."

"Kurt if someone is bugging you about being gay..."

"It's not me," Kurt said, finally looking Blaine's dad right in the eye.

This got his attention, "did something happen? Did Blaine decide to..."

"No, he didn't decide anything, which is why I think it may be in violation of the camp's sexual harassment policy," Kurt said, twisting his hands in his lap. "One of the other counselors found out about us and proceeded to tell everyone on staff that Blaine is gay."

Mr. Anderson let out a shaky breath, "How is he?"

"He seemed okay when I saw him last period, but you know Blaine. It probably won't hit him fully until much later," Kurt replied. "He's just throwing himself into being with the kids right now."

"That's Blaine for you," he said with a small, fond smile, despite the situation. Kurt allowed his thoughts to drift back to the day when Blaine had told him about their father son relationship and he smiled too. "Do you have a copy of the policy?" he asked, becoming serious again.

"It's right here," Kurt said, handing over the booklet and reciting the appropriate lines. "Sexual harassment includes verbal or physical conduct of a sexually harassing nature, when the harassment has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment."

"Kurt, I really appreciate you bringing this to my attention, but as I'm sure you know, we can't do anything until I talk to Blaine. I'll make sure I chat with him before evening activity and that way we can start taking appropriate action in the morning."

**Sam/Blaine talk in the next chapter.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Here's the chat with Sam. Hope it doesn't dissapoint!**

**Love you all. I post previews and deleted scenes on my tumblr, practical-amanda.**

"Hey," Blaine called out. He had pushed the conversation he would be having with Sam completely from his mind in order to get through his morning periods, but in the last few minutes it had come back in full force. He debated saying something else, but ultimately decided to just sit beside Sam on the log and wait for the other man to start.

"You've known for a while, right?" Sam said, not turning his head to look at Blaine yet. "You didn't realize you were gay this summer. You've known for a long time. You just didn't tell anyone at camp."

It was time for full disclosure. "I came out when I was fifteen," Blaine began. "At home, everything changed. I started being bullied badly at school so my dad moved me to a private boarding school with a no tolerance bullying policy. I didn't get picked on anymore and I would grow to love it there, but that summer when I came back to Fire Light I just wanted to be somewhere where I wasn't the gay kid...or the new kid." Blaine took another steadying breath, "After that, it just never happened. I wanted to tell you all, but I was a coward. I didn't want anything to change, but then Kurt came along. He's...he's sort of perfect. Maybe one day if this is all behind us and you're not grossed out by me talking about guys I can tell you about it, but he changed everything. I was going to come out to you today. You've probably figured that out already, but then...then Tim happened."

Sam rubbed the back of his neck and took a deep breath in, "Before we go any further, I want to make one thing really clear. I would _never _be grossed out by you telling me about someone you like, guy, girl, or other," Sam said, finally looking at Blaine fully. "That being said..."

"Ow!" Blaine cried as Sam had just smacked him upside the head. "What was that for."

"That was for lying to me," Sam said, a smile playing on his lips. "I had a whole speech prepared about how stupid you were for hiding that part of you all this time, but I figured your morning has been rough enough. I can save it for another time. I do however want to show you something."

"What's that?" Blaine asked, looking at a picture of Sam in a tuxedo with his arm around a pretty girl in a pink dress.

"This is my prom photo and this is my girlfriend Mercedes," Sam said, pointing down at the picture. "Well, technically ex girlfriend, but I plan on changing that as soon as possible. She moved to LA to pursue her singing career. We broke up because we thought the distance would be too hard, but I'm going to follow her there. I got a job and everything."

"That's great, Sam," Blaine said. "She must be pretty awesome to have bagged you."

"She is awesome and way too good for me, but that's not why I'm showing you this picture. I want you to take a look at my eye," Sam said, pointing down at the picture and Blaine could see bruising. "She was pretty annoyed that I got myself into a fight the week before prom, but it was worth it.'"

"What happened?" Blaine asked, still staring down at the picture.

"As you know, my sophomore year of high school my family ran into some financial problems. Remember those couple years I didn't come to camp? We were living in a hotel and barely making ends meet," Sam began. "The only two people who knew were my girlfriend at the time, Quinn and my friend Jack who only knew because my dad came looking for work at his dad's shop. We weren't super close, but we were both in Glee club together and that was enough. He started giving me his old clothes, making dinner for me and my family, and offering to babysit my brother and sister."

"He sounds like a nice guy," Blaine said, still not sure where this was going.

"The nicest, but not everyone seemed to agree," Sam said. "When I actually started paying attention I noticed how Jack acted in school. He was withdrawn, sad looking, and he jumped any time anyone came near him. He was gay and the guys on the football team decided that was reason enough to slam him into lockers and verbally intimidate him any time they saw him in the hall way. There was one guy, Smith, that was particularly bad. I was on the football team with him and I decided to try talking to him about it one day. He decided to punch me in the face," Sam waved off Blaine's shocked face. "I got a couple of good hits in, too so don't worry about me, but my point is that it doesn't matter to me Blaine. I'm here for you and I won't let anyone treat you differently because of it. I've seen what it can do to a person and i'm not going to watch it happen to you. Tim's a jerk and anyone with half a brain will be able to see that."

Blaine looked shocked, but incredibly grateful, "You have no idea how relieved I am to hear you say all that," Blaine said. "What ended up happening to Jack?"

"A year later when my parents had to move away to find work, he and his family let me stay with them for my junior and senior year," Sam explained. "He lives in New York now. He's pretty much like a brother to me, not unlike you. In fact if you weren't so smitten with my supervisor I'd have half a mind to set you two up," Sam said slinging an arm around Blaine's neck and rubbing his knuckle into his hair playfully.

"You know if you had touched my hair like that outside of camp, I probably would have also punched you in the face," Blaine said, standing up and walking towards the dining hall for lunch.

"Oh my god, he really is gay," Sam said, rolling his eyes and following close behind. "Now let's go find Kurt. Now that I know you two are dating I have to figure out if he's really good enough for you."


	22. Chapter 22

**Thank you so much for coming on this journey with me. For those of you who are also celebrating Rosh Hashanah, I wish you a most sincere l'shanah tovah and I hope you have the happiest and healthiest of new years. I will be working hard to put out the next story soon and it should be out starting right after the holiday if not sooner.**

**Love you all. Come say hi on tumblr, practical-amanda.**

"I thought I might find you here," Kurt said, making his way onto the dock. It was just after taps and the camp was settling down for the night. Kurt was pretty sure that Blaine had the night off, but after the week the other man had, he wasn't surprised that Blaine had opted to spend his free time relaxing instead of going out. "I guess you decided to skip the little rendezvous down to Sun Light then?"

Blaine let out a brief laugh, "I think I've come out of the closet enough times for this week. Plus, why would I want to go hang out with a bunch of girls when you're right here?" Blaine asked, leaning his head on Kurt's shoulder right as he sat down next to him. Blaine stared down at their feet, side by side in the cool water. "So it's official. They fired Tim. I was in meetings with the directors practically all day today, but he's gone now."

"How do you feel about that?" Kurt said, wrapping his arm around Blaine and pulling him closer. He rubbed Blaine's arm in what he hoped was a comforting gesture.

"I feel...like it was the right thing to do. It was massively unprofessional of him, especially when we're all supposed to be here for the kids," Blaine replied. "But in a way...I also sort of feel bad for him. Is that weird?"

"It's a little weird, but not in a bad way. I think it just means you're a decent human who can't help but empathize even when you know that the other person is in the wrong," Kurt said, pressing a firm kiss to Blaine's hair. "It's probably why I like you so much."

Blaine hummed in gratitude as Kurt began to rub the back of his neck, "You're sweet," Blaine said letting his eyes droop close. "Thank you, by the way. I haven't gotten the chance to say that yet, but I would have never had the courage for all of this if it weren't for you. And not just going to my dad and stuff," Blaine added, "coming out, telling Sam the whole truth, all of it."

"You don't need to thank me, Blaine, but you're very welcome," Blaine nodded and burrowed his head further into Kurt's shoulder. "You okay, hon?"

"Mmhmm," Blaine said with a yawn, "I'm just tired. It's been a really long week."

"Well, why don't we head back to my cabin and we can cuddle for a little bit before you have to go back to your own bed." Kurt suggested. "Plus, I have a present for you."

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"What's this?" Blaine asked, sitting down on Kurt's bed and looking down at the envelope that Kurt had pressed into his hand.

"Just open it!" Kurt said sitting down next to him and resting his chin on Blaine's shoulder so that he could watch the other man open the gift.

"Are these tickets to an off broadway musical version of _Willow_?" Blaine asked, looking perplexed.

Kurt laughed lightly, "Yes, that's exactly what they are. My best friend from home, my room mate actually, is starring in it and I was wondering if you would like to go with me. I had her send me the tickets in the mail so I could present them for dramatic effect," Kurt said, looking pleased with himself. "I know it's not for another month, but you've had a crappy week and I figured it wouldn't hurt to give them to you now."

"I...yeah of course I'll go with you, but what are they for?" Blaine said looking pleased, albeit still confused.

"They're...they're for..."Kurt struggled to find the right words. "I promised you that I would think long and hard about our relationship and where it was going, and that I wouldn't just blow it off and not talk about it. We made that mistake already and I don't want to make it again," Kurt swallowed and turned Blaine by the shoulders so that they were facing each other. "Blaine, what we've have is a beautiful summer romance, and I've had the best time, but I'm not ready to say goodbye to you, so I'm asking you out on a date. A real life, not at camp date. I think...I think we could be something great, and I think our first real world date is a good place to start."

If Kurt didn't know any better he would say that Blaine was getting a little misty eyed. "I...I don't know what to say, Kurt. That was beautiful and I couldn't agree more."

"So you'll go with me?" Kurt said, leaning his forehead against Blaine's.

"Of course I will. I can't wait," Blaine replied before closing the small distance between them for a kiss.

The summer wasn't over. They still had another entire session of kids to deal with and many lessons to teach. Blaine would eventually have to explain to Jane that there was a reason that he had never responded to any of her advances and Kurt had yet to experience what would turn out to be his first and last real camping trip, but for now, kissing was much more important than worrying about all that. All Kurt and Blaine knew in that moment was that when they packed their bags and gave a final brix brax to camp fire light for the summer, it wouldn't be the end for them. It would be the beginning.

**There will be an epilogue for this story, but I have literally no idea when that will be haha.**


	23. Chapter 23

My new story is up! I would love for you all to check it out. It's called _Make 'Em Laugh _and it's comedian!Blaine and bartender!Kurt.


	24. Epilogue

**And here it is, the epilogue. Once again, thank you all for reading. I really enjoyed going on this journey with you.**

**Love you all. Come say hi on tumblr, practical-amanda.**

"Are we there yet?" a small voice came from the back seat of Blaine's car. Rose was Blaine's daughter biologically and she was three. She was in Pooh Corner at Fire Light for now and Blaine was secretly dreading the day she would be eight, and old enough to go off to Sun Light for the summer. "I miss Papa."

"I know, baby," Blaine said, glancing back at his daughter. She had head of messy brown curls and was wearing a pair of pink overalls that Blaine had picked out. He knew Kurt would pretend to hate them, but actually think they were cute. "I miss him, too. We'll be there in about twenty minutes." Kurt was still head of the waterfront at camp, which meant he had to be there extra early to train the new staff. Blaine was now the intermediate unit director. His dad had retired from camp a few years ago, but he still visited from time to time.

Not much had changed about the camp since that fateful summer when the two had first met. In a way that was the beauty of summer camp. Kurt and Blaine's lives changed, but Fire Light, for the most part, stayed the same.

Nearly three years after they had gotten together, Kurt proposed and Blaine gave an unequivocal 'yes'. The two got married six months later in a simple, but elegant (this was a Kurt Hummel affair after all) wedding in Manhattan. One of Blaine's favorite parts of the engagement process was finally having the opportunity to introduce his father to Senator Burt Hummel.

Rose had come along a few years later when the couple decided that they wanted to start a family. After a long process of choosing between adoption and surrogacy, Kurt and Blaine had chosen to have a child that was biologically theirs, after a generous offer from Mercedes (who was now Sam's wife) to carry their child.

"Will I get to swim when I get there? Is Auntie Amy going to be there? Will I get to go on the water slide? Are we going to make s'mores?" Rose asked in a rapid fire.

Blaine chuckled, "maybe, yes, maybe, and yes," he fired back, used to his daughters overwhelming enthusiasm. "It depends on whether or not Papa is busy with all of the life guards. We have to make sure you're safe, baby."

Rose pouted slightly, but it didn't last long, as the car had just turned down the dirt path into Camp Fire Light. "We're just going to put all of our stuff in the family cabin first, and then we'll head down to the waterfront to see Papa. Can you be a big girl and carry your backpack and teddy? Daddy will get the rest," Rose nodded her little head seriously and slipped her little pink backpack on before hopping out of the car.

Blaine and Kurt were lucky to be able to stay in one of the family cabins while Rose was still in Pooh Corner. She had a small front room to herself, while Kurt and Blaine had a fairly large master bedroom with a bathroom and a small kitchenette. It was a far cry from the tiny counselor nook and bare bones cabins that Kurt and especially Blaine had been used to, but that first year when Rose had practically been a new born showed them how necessary those extra amenities really were.

It was close quarters compared to the family's fairly spacious house in Montclair, a New Jersey suburb of Manhattan that the two had settled in a year after Rose was born, but it was home. Kurt and Blaine had both become school teachers, Blaine in early elementary school and Kurt in high school, but for now Blaine was taking time off to be a full time dad. The three of them really valued the summer when they had the ability to be together as a family practically all the time.

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"Okay guys, your practical lifeguarding test will be tomorrow," Kurt said, addressing his staff on the log benches that were next to the dock, and looking over his clip board. "Those of you who need to retake the written portion, I'll have that available to you after you meet with the unit directors tonight. I'll make sure you don't get out too late from the unit meetings. I have an in," Kurt said chuckling to himself. There were a few laughs from the staff as well, from those who were in the know, so to speak.

"Hey, I'll keep them as long as I like!" Blaine said from his place behind the benches. He had walked up just in time to here Kurt concluding his meeting.

Before Kurt had time to quip back, however, he found that his arms were full of an excited three years old, "Papa!" she yelled, as she leapt into Kurt's arms. "We're here!"

Kurt laughed and held Rose close to him, "you are!" he said back, just as excited to see his family. "Guys, I would like you to meet my daughter Rose. Say hi, sweetie," the young girl was suddenly shy at having an audience and buried her head in Kurt's neck, sending a wave back towards the crowd. There was a few laughs and Kurt just laughed with them and gave Rose a kiss on the head. "The goof ball behind you will be the unit director for some of you. He also happens to be my husband. Why don't you all get cleaned up and I'll see you at dinner."

0000000000

"Mmm...that feels nice," Kurt said. He was lying face down in bed, Rose was already asleep and Blaine was rubbing his shoulders, tense from days of teaching the lifeguarding course. "I knew there was a reason I missed you so much," he added, turning his head slightly to send Blaine a cheeky wink.

"Careful mister," Blaine said, running his hands up Kurt's back and starting in on his neck, "you shouldn't insult the man who's voluntarily massaging you."

"You're right," Kurt said, words once again muffled since his face was shoved into the pillow. "I'll never insult you again just don't stop."

Blaine chuckled, "a likely story," but he didn't stop until he felt Kurt completely relax underneath him. Blaine scooted to the side to snuggle next to his husband. "It's good to be back," Blaine whispered into Kurt's cheek.

"it definitely is," Kurt said, sending Blaine a mischievous grin and leaning in for a long kiss, pulling away only long enough to give a muffled, "ra for Camp Fire Light."

**Shameless plug for my new fic, _Make 'Em Laugh_. It's an AU where Blaine is a struggling comedian and Kurt is the bar tender at the comedy club he works at.**


End file.
